School of Fish: Good news!

Since I am recovering from tongue surgery you are probably thinking that I am talking about good news in my healing. But really that was just my way of getting you to read some even better news.

Yesterday two of my dear friends had a baby shower. When we realized that I would be in town for this baby shower, I was asked if I would give some devotional thoughts. I was very excited about the opportunity! I love these women and was excited about the chance to encourage them as they move into this new season of life. Since my procedure, I have not been able to speak much, so I decided to write out my thoughts and ask another friend to read them aloud. Afterward many women mentioned how this was encouraging to them also, so I thought I would share it here on my blog. Here is the good news I wanted to share with them and with you:

As I was thinking about what I wanted to share with you as a devotional thought today, I kept coming back to the idea of relaxing, resting and rejoicing in Jesus. That may be because I am taking some serious narcotic pain medicine, but I hope it has more to do with the gospel. There is much good advice out there and many things to do to try to be a good mom, but ultimately the most important thing is that our children know and love Jesus.

Many of us try to live as if we don’t need Jesus in our everyday life. We think we can handle many situations on our own. We think we should be able to be the perfect parents always doing the right thing and teaching our children to do the right thing. If that were possible, we would not have needed a Savior. Jesus came to die, not because we needed a good example, but because we are desperate and lost without him. Be willing to admit your brokenness.

For consider your calling, (sisters): not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

I remember often feeling overwhelmed at the responsibility of caring for such a helpless little baby and fearing that each decision I would make would somehow ruin everything. I want to encourage you, that you will make bad decisions. You will even sin against your children. But God is bigger than all of that. He is sovereign and in control of all things. He can work for the good of His children even when their parents really mess up. He is the one who holds these little lives in His hands. Rest in the fact that He loves your children better than you ever could. Let Him be God and be free to just be their mom.

Over the years, I think the most important thing I have learned through parenting is to pray. Pray for your children, acknowledging that God is the only one who can change their hearts. Pray with your children confessing, showing them that you need Jesus just as much as they do. Pray with your children praising, remembering that every good gift is from the Lord. Pray with your children asking, reminding them and yourself, that we can always go to our Heavenly Father with every concern. It is ok to pray about diaper rash, sleep and the when and how of feeding babies.

Remember that God has also given you the body of Christ to help you. Do not think that you need to figure everything out on your own. God has given you husbands. Ask them for help when you don’t know what to do. It is amazing how much clearer an answer is sometimes to a person who is not dealing with post-partum hormones and sleep deprivation. And ask other women who have walked down this road before you. You of course will receive differing advice, but God is sovereign in that too. Ask people for help. I know that you are both loved by your gospel community and your church family. There are many people who would like to help in some way. Let the body of Christ minister to you as you walk into this next season of life. Rest and let others cook for you, or watch your baby so you can have a date with your husband, or even just take a nap. Also, if you are up in the middle of the night with a crying baby and/or crying mommy, remember that it is morning in Uganda, and you can call me. J Give us older women a chance to do the things God has instructed us to do in the book of Titus.

And remember that there is only One who is perfect and righteous, and that is Jesus. He is the only Perfect Parent. The rest of us are broken examples. Be willing to admit your failures to yourself, to God, to your husband, to your children, to your friends. It is ok. Your identity is not in your parenting or your child’s behavior, but it isin Jesus Christ. If you are His child, God has clothed you with His righteousness and He is the One who has your sons’ lives in His hands. Let Him be God and you can rest knowing that He has given you the privilege to love these little ones as just a small picture of His great love to them and to you!

¹⁴For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵from whom every family^[^c^] in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

²⁰Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21)