“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” – Proverbs 3:5
“I am just a Mom”
This is a statement I have used many times since becoming a Mom 23 years ago. You see, I said this when I held my daughter in my arms for the first time and couldn’t take my eyes off of her, “I am just a Mom in love with my child.” That love continued and multiplied as I was blessed with more children. I became the mom of a boy and in that learned how different sons and daughters are, but the love was the same. Along came another girl and there I was with one full heart and only two arms, but somehow was able to hold, protect and love them all. After all, I am just mom and it is what moms do.
I am just a Mom I would say . . . without position, title or a career outside the home. There were many sleepless nights caring for my babies, but I am just a Mom and that is what moms do. Not a superwoman, not something extraordinary, just a Mom. While this statement may have diminished my role at times, the truth remained. I am a Mom and it was and always will be one of the greatest blessings in my life. The calling for this position, to be a mom was from God Himself, and the sad thing was that I did not recognize that. I took my role seriously and in my own strength. I did my best to care for my children. I thought I could be their hero, the one who shielded them from pain, but I was wrong. After a divorce I realized that I am just a mom in need of help. This is where my surrender happened and faith opened my heart to God.
God called me again and blessed me with a son through a new marriage. This is what some would call the step-mom role and, for a while, I did too. The truth is the love is the same and the desire to care for and protect is still there. So, I do not call myself stepmom anymore, cause after all, I am just a Mom. In all that, my faith has grown and my need for guidance in motherhood has grown as well. My family grew with one more child: my youngest son who I homeschool. He is a reminder that the call to motherhood is one I do not do on my own. It takes great faith to step into the role of parent and sometimes it leads us to the most unexpected places.
The unexpected places challenge us to fight battles with our own strength, but that is not God’s intention. We are not just moms, we are daughters of a good God and Father. I learned this when my husband and I needed to pull our son out of school and homeschool him. He was struggling and the next step would have been medication for ADD. Unexpected and crippling! All I could think about was that I am just a mom who wanted to shield her son from a label that I did not see fit for him. This was not something I could do on my own, I stepped out in faith with my family completely trusting in the Lord’s plan.
I have learned that faith is my super-mom strength because after all the unexpected happens and things are beyond my control. I am just a mom, but my kids are not mine alone, they are God’s children first. This truth is more difficult to live by when your young adult children step out on their own. Where I want to hold them close and protect them, God is calling them to be who He intended and that may not always be easy to watch because I after all I still am their mom.
Recently I have faced an epic battle of fear as a mom of an ICU Nurse. My oldest daughter felt called four years ago to become a nurse. She worked hard and excelled. We were proud and had high hopes for her future. This past December she graduated with honors and a goal. She wanted to work in ICU at Johns Hopkins. I was stunned and as her thought, this seems too much for you. I was thinking safe and quiet, not busy and filled with uncertainty. This is her life and all I could do was stand in awe. All her dreams were coming true in the beginning of March when she started her dream job as an ICU Nurse. This just happened to also be the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis.
I am just a mom who wants to keep her daughter home. I want her safe. I don’t want her overwhelmed, scared, or at risk of becoming sick herself. But this is not my call, and this was no surprise to God. Now, more than ever, I need my super-mom powers! These powers are not my arms that can cover her, or keep her home. These are the powers of faith and through that I can trust God Himself will be with her and be her shield!
With all the difficulties and the joys of being a Mom, I have learned that letting go is not easy and I do not think it ever will be. However, I have also learned that peace can come when I simply trust in the God who has faithfully blessed me, led me and was always with me. In the end, “I am just a mom,” a mom made by God!
Blessings,
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