For the mom who needs to be refreshed: Becoming an excellent {not perfect} mother {Day 11}

For the mom who needs to be refreshed, Let me tell you my story of discovering how to truly be refreshed in the midst of the challenging work of mothering:

Sometimes I am so desperate for a break, or for profound insight that infuses my mothering with energy.  My weak mind and exhausted body cannot take all that is thrown at me and I long for rest.  I go through the days just putting one foot in front of the other.

I rely on myself to get me through. I wonder at the one thing that will refresh me enough to allow me to make it until bedtime. Some chocolate perhaps? Another latte or a few moments with a good book? Perhaps a shopping trip or something special just for me.  And no matter how much they promise, none of them seem to do it for me.  They don’t fill me up enough to overcome all that feels overwhelming.

I get a night out to myself, again desperate to be refreshed. This must be it! The thing I need to have something more to give.  At the end of the night I am a little more full, a little more accomplished, but no more ready to take on everything on my plate in life.

I just need to figure out what will do it for me.  I need to find what will refresh me.  I desperately need what will fill me to the brim.

I. I. I.  That is my problem.

I have become my own source. For filling, for refreshing, for fulness of life.

I find my way to my knees as my eyes become unveiled and truth floods in.  No matter what is going on in my world I have access to life. True life from the Life Giver.

The fall in Eden was all about a disconnect from the Giver of Life.  Adam and Eve didn’t die physically but rather spiritually they died in that they were disconnected from the very life that made them whole.  Salvation gives us access again to true life.

And I am dead inside every time I rely on self to fill me with life.  It’s false life…without hope for any filling.

As a mom, a busy mom with so many needs and pressures and things tugging at me, I desperately need life from the Life Giver.  I need to be connected with Him to make it through even an hour.  He never asks me to do all of this alone.  I must give Him any shame the tries to keep me disconnected from Him and stay close to His mouth as He speaks life to my heart throughout my day.

Whenever I wonder what the answers are for the situations that I am drowning in, if I do not go to Him for them, I am choosing to be my own source.  And I drown in a sea of me.

All I ever need is my Daddy God, and the life that He promises, to be refreshed.  He is my filling up again and my refreshing.

What ways can you reconnect with the Life Giver again today?  Are there areas that you have tried to be your own source in?  If you are tired of the false filling lay them down and surrender your heart to Him and be refreshed today.

In case you have missed any of the other posts in this series you can find them all here.  See you tomorrow!