Just Be Their Mom

I want to be Mazy’s hero. I want to be someone she can look back at and say one day, I want to be like her. I know that sounds extremely narcissistic, but I look back at the way I grew up, and I want to be like my mom. And I know I have things I need to change in my life. Okay, lots of things. Plus, I wouldn’t say I am “normal” by any means, if any of you know me, you know I’m a little weird, but all I want to just to be Mazy’s MOM. But the world says I need to be so much more.

The world says I need to be a successful woman. The world says I need to be perfect. The world says I need to be a skinny and gym-attending mom, if I truly cared about my body. The world says I need to ensure she is always a step ahead of everyone else, if I want her to succeed. The world says I need to do dot, dot, dot, instead of just being Mazy’s MOM.

The older I get and trust me, I’m getting OLD, the more I am realizing that all God is calling me to just be Mazy’s mom. I always want to fill the sentence in with all of these “things” that I need to be, in order to be an accomplished mom, a successful mom, a friend-mom, a dot, dot, dot, mom.

But God has called me to be Mazy’s mom. And what a GIFT that is. I get to wake up everyday, and be her MOM. And Dan gets to wake up every morning and Mazy’s DAD. The only manual that we have is the Bible and the promptings God puts on our hearts. We think there is this “perfect” way to raise a child, but because we live in a fallen world and God has created us so differently, there IS NO PERFECT WAY. Even though that is what we are all often striving towards. Stop striving, my friend. Just be their mom.

We have the privilege every day, to wake up and teach our children about God. We have the privilege every day, to wake up and extend the love that God has put into our hearts and give it to them. What a GIFT!

Telling myself that, day after day, has given me so much freedom. I’m pretty good at putting pressure on myself to be a certain somebody. Really, somebody I am not. I’ve spent too much of my life trying to be someone else, instead of myself.

I want Mazy to grow up being confident in WHO God created her to be. If I don’t encourage her to be who GOD created her to be, she is going to grow up confused and discouraged, seeking after something that isn’t possible. But If I personally am not confident who God created ME to be, then there is no way I can encourage her to be the same.

All we need to be is JUST US. Just be you. And JUST BE YOUR KIDS’ MOM.