Encouragement for Mothers!

Ok! This week I was reading a novel and I read something that was very convicting and encouraging at the same time about raising children and motherhood! I would like to share this passage with you (especially my mommy friends who are right smack in the middle of raising their children!). I also wanted to share that this was really good for me to hear and that has been mulling around in my brain the last week! I hope that it will be an encouragement for all and a good reminder of what our goal and purpose is in parenting. :)

I could try to paraphrase ...but those of you who know me well would know I would probably ramble on for pages and still not be really clear...So I have decided to quote it directly from the book! I have not done a Bibliography in years(and I used to hate them passionately) so please pardon my attempt to remember how to do it.


This excerpt was taken from:
Season's Under Heaven, Blackstock, Terri and LaHaye, Beverly. Copyright 1999 published by Zondervan Publishing House. pp 363-366

(Context: Brenda is a humble, godly mother of four (home schools) and is in the hospital chapel praying for her ten year old son Joseph who is in the middle of a heart transplant...and her friend Tory comes in to check on her. Tory is a frustrated stay at home mother, who strives for perfection in her appearance and her home, and never finds time to write (something she is truly gifted at and has big plans to be a novelist; career plans that have been reluctantly put on the back burner while she raises her young children)

" Brenda turned around and settled her misty eyes on Tory. 'I was just thinking,' she whispered, 'about the parable of the talents.'

Tory looked at her, wondering how that particular parable could possibly apply to what was happening here. Had she been worrying about the money?

'I was thinking how those talents could just as well be our children,' Brenda said. 'God gave them to us, and we have the option of either hiding them in the ground or investing them.'

Tory tried to make the analogy, but came up short. 'what do you mean hide them in the ground?'

Brenda shrugged. 'Oh, I don't know. Ignore them, maybe. Stay too busy to spend time with them. There are an awful lot of stray kids running around with no one to take care of them. Oh, I don't mean that they're homeless or orphaned. Their parents are meeting their physical and material needs, but that's about it. They're not loving them, teaching them, training them up in the way they should go.'

Tory kept her eyes on Brenda, trying to follow where she was leading.

'In fact,' Brenda went on in a shaky voice, 'they're wishing they didn't even have them, because they cramp their style and interfere with their goals.'

Tory felt slapped down, as if Brenda had just nailed her. But she could see in Brenda's face that she hadn't directed that at Tory. She wasn't pointing a finger; she was just painting a picture. Maybe she didn't realize how close to home she had hit.

'So many people just keep looking to the future,' Brenda went on. 'They think, 'Someday my kids'll grow up and I'll be happy.' And others look back and think, 'If only my kids were home again, I'd be happy.' And some think, 'If I could just do this or bet that, I'd be happy. Even Christians, ' she said, as if that surprised her. She looked down at Tory. 'But you know what?'

Tory wiped her face and shook her head. 'No, what?'

'I've been happy. God's given me these four children, and I've invested them. They're my life's work. I know you want to be a writer, Tory,' she said, sitting back down and taking Tory's hand. 'you'd love to win a Pulitzer prize and have your books on the shelves of bookstores. But you know what? To me, that's not as exciting as what you and I get to do every day. Think of it,' she whispered. 'We've got these little human beings in our hands, and it's our job to raise them up in the way God wants them, so that when He comes back for them, we can say we invested them wisely.'

Tory stared at the altar, trying to let he words sink in. She had never thought of her children as being much of a blessing. They had come easily, just when she'd planned them, and most days, she found them to be an obstacle between her and her ambitions. That exasperation was an occupational hazard, she had told herself. All mothers felt this way. Worn out, overworked, spinning their wheels. As much as she loved them, she often resented them.

She looked up at Brenda, and saw that her eyes were brimming with tears. 'God may take Joseph back today,' Brenda went on. 'But if He does, I'll know that I gave Joseph all I had. I invested him wisely.' Her voice trembled as she got the words out. 'If he grows to be an adult, I've prepared him to be a godly man. And if he doesn't, I think God will be happy with what I did for him, anyway.'

Silence fell like snowflakes between them.

After a while, Tory whispered, 'Imagine that. Guilt-free parenting, knowing you could look God in the eye, because you did your best.' It was a concept hard for her to grasp. "

So...this definitely was good for me to read for my own reasons and I won't point them all out because I think these points will be different for everyone, depending on where you are, but I do hope it encourages you all!

Maria