Motherhood Tested: Finding Strength in Scripture Through Tough Times
Posted on April 20, 2024 • 4 minutes • 768 words
Photo by Liza SummerTable of contents
Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have known sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Persecution we See
There’s quite a few different angles I could choose from to write about this Scripture. I am far from an expert on current political/religious issues, but it is important to know that religious persecution of Christians is happening all over the world. The most recent article I could find on the topic is here 1 if you want to read it, and it covers not just Christians but other religions as well. There’s some pretty disturbing acts of violence described in the article, so please only click over if you feel up to reading about that today.
Persecution we Feel
Since I have very little to add to that topic, but I did think it was important to point out, I would like to approach this Scripture from a different perspective that’s more in keeping with the scope of this blog: –The personal persecution we feel daily as we try to live loving and abundant lives and raise our children to follow Jesus–. What are the things that follow us, that bother us, that oppress us, that keep us from living our best lives?
We might worry about things that feel inconsequential, but those worries are valid as long as they’re important to you. It’s not bad to worry about how your house looks, if your kids are wearing coordinated clothes, if the meals you’re making are beautifully plated and your floors are always clean. It’s not bad to worry about how much time you’re spending with your kids, the increasing cost of living, your family’s health concerns, or how you’re going to make your budget work with the holidays around the corner. I worry about those things all the time - though I have pretty much given up on getting my kids to coordinate outfits.
Our Biggest Critic
These are normal and often important things to worry about. When the stress starts building, we can feel persecuted by our own thoughts. Persecuted by our day-to-day worries and concerns. We might feel persecuted by the worry that we’re not doing motherhood well. That our kids aren’t getting enough of our time, attention, love, or care. We can’t shake the feeling that we’re not doing enough, that we’re not doing it right, that somehow we are not giving our children the childhood that they deserve.
The persecution comes, then, not so much from the content of the worry, but the result of it: it distracts us from remembering that our job is to serve a loving God who wants good things for us. A God who saves by grace, not by works. A God who does not need us to do anything except bring our broken, imperfect selves into the relationship and say, here’s the best I can do. God requires nothing from us - God does not need us for anything, God is perfect and whole and unblemished without any effort on our part.
God loves us, intensely, deeply, and without fail. God welcomes us exactly as we are. If the best we can do on any given day (or many given days) is Frozen and frozen pizza, God loves that for us. If the best we can do on another day is coordinated outfits and patient, loving responses to our children’s bickering, God loves that for us too.
God is perfect and whole and unblemished without any effort on our part
When you feel persecuted, when all the negative thoughts are piling on top of each other, when you feel the weight bearing down on your shoulders and your spirit, remember that all you have to do is what you can do. All you have to do is whatever the most important thing is. God loves that for you, and God loves you, no matter what.