My Child's Keeper

When I consider what it means to be a mother I am filled with honor and excitement. When I think that God has given over to me these little beings, fresh and new, unblemished by the world, to grow them up in His calling, I am amazed.To know that He found me worthy of the calling of "mother" can be an overwhelming thought. It brings so much freedom, yet so much fear at the same time. Fortunately the freedom is the true calling and the fear is of my own making.

The freedom of God's calling of mother, is that while I am the mother, God is the one who is in true control. My job as my child's keeper is to plant in them the seeds that will grow to create the beauty God is bringing up in them. As a mother I carefully plant the seeds of love, confidence, self-worth, and purpose. I tend to them, keep the weeds of the world from choking them out. I use every opportunity to do the best I possibly can, but in the end God is the one who grows those seeds, who matures those seeds, who causes those seeds to bring forth fruit. The freedom is that I do the best I can in everything, apologize and try better when I fail, and love as much as I can then I pray in those moments that I have no control, and know that it all is in God's hands. My children don't need perfection from me, they already have a perfect heavenly Father. They need someone to teach them the right path, so that when they feel God's leading them they will recognize it. They need me to lay the foundation for God to build on, and then I can be there to help them along the narrow way.

Yes, there is great freedom in the calling of mother. There also seems to be a great bit of fear as well. Fear that our children will stray, fear that our children will not come to know the Lord, fear that we will not do enough. We need to be able to separate our convictions from our fears, to recognize when we need to change and when we need to pray. The convictions God lays on our heart to change the things that we have control over, our attitude and our methods, these things we can change to keep ourselves in His will. However, our children's attitudes, the choices they make out of their own free will, the path that they may decide to take that we do not agree with, are all things we fear, yet these are all things we can do nothing about. In those moments we need to recognize the freedom in our calling, that our job is to plant the seeds, but we cannot make them grow into completion. We need to let go of the fear of losing control, the fear of who our children will become, the fear that we will mess everything up if we do something wrong, and recognize the truth in our calling. The fact that God is the true, perfect parent and our job is to lead them in His direction.

And as they grow, if when they mess up, and if they choose to stray, have faith in the seeds that you planted and in the foundation that you laid. Recognize the calling you have on your life, but recognize the responsibility that your children have to apply these things themselves. Our children are not our puppets anymore than we are puppets to the Almighty Father. We cannot, and do not want to, control their every single move. We want them to be their own people, with the ability to make their own decisions, and we know that God can turn their greatest mistakes into the greatest growth. We lead them, not leash them. We love them, not lure them. We do what we can, and God does the rest.