A 16-year-in-the-making edition of if we were having coffee today, AKA, What I’d tell you on this eve of my firstborn Mancub turning 16:
1) Go ahead and stop replaying all the ways you fail in motherhood, but humbly rejoice that God changes a mother just as much as He grows a child. Humility paves the way for change more than guilt ever will.
2) Don’t let anyone tell you your best + most relevant years are in your youth when you’ve got energy or a waistline. Our motherhood years aren’t back-burner years; they are becoming years. And they matter more than you know.
3) The kid that you’re fretting about has the potential to bless in unimaginable ways; choose to pray more than you fret since God’s the one who’s writing his/her story.
4) No season of motherhood is easier or harder, better or worse; we simply get to adjust our expectations with experience.
5) I don’t look at this 6’1” kid and wish I’d made more money, spent more time building my platform, bought him more stuff, or kept the house more pristine...
...If I could go back and do anything differently, I’d laugh more, find a mentor, lower my voice, and take more time reading Bible stories at bedtime (for him and for me.)
So, I’d tell my 16-yr. ago self and to you, too: There’s so much joy to be had because God uses the hardest callings to expose His greatest provision.
Mamas, we get to celebrate much more than our kids getting older year by year; we celebrate His faithfulness in us, moment by moment.
This post first appeared on March 19, 2018 on Instagram
Because of grace,