Enough

I have had those mommy days  when right out of the gate the girls are fighting and I didn't get a chance to have my quiet time and the filling of the Holy Spirit was not evident in my words at that moment.  It isn't bad words that flow freely from my mouth, just the tone and maybe the amplitude (i.e. yelling).

I hate when I do that. 

My mom used to yell at me and Cindy (and the neighbor kids or cousins).  It wasn't necessarily the loudness of her voice, but the mean tone.  I can yell to get over the volume of the kids and the tone is friendly or I can yell when I am impatient and losing it.  I always felt like my mom was impatient.

Devotion 2 from Out of the Spin Cycle by Jen Hatmaker is titled My Kids Are Headed to Therapy. 

Matt 10:25 "It is enough for the student to be like his teacher," Jesus said.

Will I ever be enough as a mom?  When the student becomes like her teacher, our failures and omissions as moms recede as the sweet spirit of Jesus covers our humanity.....It is enough for me to show patience when I want to stick my fingers in my ears and scream like a toddler. It is enough to choose mercy when they've made the same mistake yet again.  It is enough to imitate my Christ, who never jumped through conventional hoops but transformed the trajectory of history through grace and sacrifice....You are enough as a mother when you act like your Redeemer...when you talk like he talked, love like he loved, forgive like he forgave, and teach like he taught.   pg 18-19.

Question:  As a mom, does the goal of becoming like your teacher feel like enough?

Why yes it does, because it seems like a simple goal, but yet it is unattainable if I am not filled with my Teacher.  How I pray to be filled with Him.  I don't want to be a bad mom.  I don't want to make the same mistakes my parents did (I can make new ones :-).  Oh how I pray for my legacy to be one my girls want to imitate. 

Psalm 19:14  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.