Happy Moms??
There's a beautiful promise in Psalm 113:9 that I regularly pray for my friends who long to conceive and have children - "He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children." As I've reflected on that verse, I have often had the words "happy mother" grab me. I am one of those women who has been blessed several times over with amazingly wonderful children, but does the "happy" part describe me?
I would more often describe myself as a "busy mother", a "worried mother", a "weary mother", and even a "proud mother" or a "loving mother". Happy is a little more challenging! There's just so many things that can rob me of my happiness - disappointments, loss, pressure, unmet expectations of others and myself, unwelcome change, and of course, just the daily stresses of life.
I know I'm not alone in this struggle to be happy and stay happy, because every time I open a woman's magazine, I find a self help article on how to de-stress, how to manage a busy life, or how to be happy. I've read enough of the same hints about carving out time to relax, lowering expectations, and getting organized to make life more manageable, that I feel like I should be the most carefree mom ever! Many of the tips are wise, but they still fall short in allowing me to consistently be a happy mom!
Although I have certainly not arrived in this area, I have found an answer to my quest for happiness. (Having the name "Joy" has definitely added to my intensity in this quest!) I can best define it through another verse from the psalms (146:5), "Happy are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God." Each morning, usually before my eyes are open, I give my day to God and ask Him to help me. Sometimes this is a calm, cheerful request and other days it is a desperate plea, "Please help me!!" As I ask Him for help, I choose to believe that the One who created me also knows what I need, how much I can take, and what the best plan is for me. My circumstances are not always what I might choose, but my happiness goes deeper than that. My life is safe in the most capable, loving Hands there could ever be! Depending on God, my Heavenly Father, fills me with hope, and allows me to be that "happy mother" that I so want to be.
~written by Joy Herman
Thank you for this, Joy! I struggle with this, too and I'm so glad you addressed it. Sometimes it's hard to remember that He knows more about us and what we can do and what we need than we do.
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