Meditations on Motherhood
Our Mums Connect group has been reading “Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full”. Audrey Lim has been part of this group, and she reflects on how she has been helped by this book in her own journey in motherhood.
We’ve been reading a book by Gloria Furman, titled Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full: Gospel Meditations for Busy Mums. The book’s title is so real and immediately relatable and I know many mums can relate too. I know motherhood is a precious gift from the Lord but it often feels so hard. I desperately need God’s truth renewing my mind and this book and the conversations with other mums seeking to treasure Christ has been so helpful!
The book has helped me clearly see that God uses the duties of motherhood to shape us toward Christlikeness. These duties are not in the way of holiness, but the means.
Motherhood is a constant and often unseen service unto others. As soon as a woman is pregnant, she shares her body with another person and gives up much of her own comfort — sleep, time, food preferences etc — for the sake of another. Her body is forever changed as she carries life into this world, even mums to adoptive and foster children experience this as their hearts expand to love and guide another.
This selfless work continues way past pregnancy, labour and postpartum. It is the tune of our daily lives. It is waking up through the night to soothe a hungry infant, it is comforting a sick child through the day. It is making meals and washing dishes, it is folding the endless laundry. It is speaking kindly to others (our children, our spouses, neighbours and strangers) even when we’re tired and recognising our need for daily repentance. It is waking up before our kids to feed ourselves, to bury God’s word deep in our hearts so that our hearts overflow with a pleasing theme (Ps 45:1) and our words carry the fragrance of a merciful and kind God (2 Cor 2:15). It is humbling ourselves before God and putting to death our pride and selfishness in so many areas so that our children see Jesus.
As I ponder on how Jesus came to serve and not to be served, I begin to see what a significant task I am called to as a mum and what a significant help I have. I can pour out my life in service to others because of Jesus’ example of servanthood and sacrifice. Because he loved me and gave himself up for me (Eph 5:2), because he emptied himself and took the form of a servant (Phil 2:7), I can love and serve my family selflessly. This truth has been so essential to enjoying motherhood, especially as I wrestle against a self-seeking culture and when my sinful heart is prone to despising and downplaying motherhood as pitiful work.
When we have to get down low yet again to speak at the level of our kids, or get on our knees and scrub sticky food (or mysterious liquids) off the floor for the twentieth time today, know that the Lord was made low too, for our sake, that He came into our dirty mess and lived to die to give us a clean slate with Him again. He did it all out of love that we may see the glory of His Father.
When my children sin and I fail to open my arms in forgiveness to them, I remember that Jesus opened His arms on the cross so I can run to Him for forgiveness. When I discipline harshly and am unkind toward my children, I remember that God has shown us great kindness in Jesus (Eph 2:7) who was punished harshly on my behalf, and I am now free to repent and try again.
This constant service that is motherhood is precisely why it is such a gift, because in serving others, we are being shaped into Christlikeness — and don’t we all want to be more like Jesus! In God’s incredible wisdom, the sacrifices and sanctification we feel in the early days of becoming a mum are just the beginning of all the good He has in store for us in this eternal work of motherhood. He uses every moment of raising tiny disciples to disciple our own hearts toward our eternal good in Christ.
These are things I could never do without God’s help and God’s people pointing me to Christ. Come join us as we help one another serve and live for the Lord joyfully!
If you are keen to find out more about Mums Connect, contact Siew Ting (siewting@gracebaptistchurch.sg).