Just Because it’s Hard Doesn’t Mean You are Doing it Wrong

Welcome to Day 7 in our 31 Day series on A Mom’s Guide to Getting it All Done. In case you missed yesterday’s post you may want to go and read it first. Or just jump in right here with us today.

I was going to share something else today but I woke up just feeling like there was so much weighing on me this morning. I have a to do list a mile long and, of course, so many unexpected and unplanned things have come up that need attention. We’ll chat a bit later in our series about preparing for those kinds of things but for today… I want to make sure you know something that I desperately needed to remember.

Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you are doing it wrong.

That goes for your marriage, your ministry, your relationships, your business, and especially for motherhood. God never said our lives would be easy. In fact, we are guaranteed suffering in this life. And, I don’t know about you, but for so long I just wanted to discover the easy way. Give me the 10 steps to getting my kids to obey and the 5 ways to keep my home in order and the 7 tools for organizing my day perfectly.

But reality is that life, as a mom, is hard. And hard can feel like failure. Especially when everyone else seems to make it look easy. 

I don’t say that it’s hard in an ungrateful, whiny way (although I have whined about it before, I assure you), but rather in an accepting and determined to keep going way. There is joy to be found in the midst of it, wisdom freely available and peace surrounding it but none of those things take away the hard work of it all.

It can feel like your world is falling apart one moment when you’re tired and the laundry is piled high and the kids are running circles around you with boys being boys (all rough and tough) and girls being girls (all “watch me mommy.”). Or how about when your daughter hits your son (for the fourth time)? Or your teen gives in to peer pressure? Or your toddler peed on the floor (again!)? Or your baby just won’t stop crying?

They feel like failure moments don’t they? They rise up and dump on you with waves of failure.

But here’s the important thing – in the midst of all this hard stuff you are learning. You are growing. Your kids are learning and their little hearts are on display for you to see.

These aren’t failure moments. They are just the hard moments that need the good mom in you to rise up and meet them.

You are anointed for the task of mothering. The calling, the anointing, is for the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. It’s okay that it’s hard. It’s okay that you don’t have all the answers. It’s okay that there are moments when you feel like you have messed it all up. You haven’t.

These are the moments, these desperate moments, when we need to hide. Not in our bathrooms (Ok, maybe sometimes in our bathrooms) but under the shadow of the Almighty. Hide yourself under His wings and let Him have all of the hard of your day.

God takes hard, difficult, and trying and trades them for wisdom to know how to rise up and meet them. He takes weakness and shows us how strong He is. He shines a light on the hearts of our children in hopes that we will run to Him for the answers, for the strength, for the tools to carry on.

So, take a deep breath and don’t listen to the lies of failure when this mothering job is hard. Just run to your great God and listen for His “I’ve got you girl.” He knows it’s hard and He’ll supply you with grace, peace, strength, wisdom, joy and rest in the midst of it all.

See you back here tomorrow for Day 8 in our A Mom’s Guide to Getting it All Done series. If you’d like to get the posts straight to your email inbox click here to sign up.