5 Ways God’s Character Transforms Motherhood
The end of my proverbial rope usually comes around 5:30pm each day. I glance at my watch wondering when my husband will be home from work, simultaneously trying to keep dinner from burning and placating a toddler who’s throwing a tantrum over cheese. In moments like these, I know I do not have enough patience for my toddler, love for my husband, and endurance in managing our home to make it another hour.
I’m tempted to flee to the world of social media, where little squares affirm my strength in motherhood. But as the roar of the oven hood vent and my toddler’s screams grow louder, I doubt the truth of those self-empowering sentiments. Before motherhood I might have been able to deny my weaknesses, but being a mom puts my limitations on display every day. When faced with my failures, I alternate between prideful self-reliance and self-condemnation, but God gives us a better way to respond when we hit our limits.
As we humbly accept our insufficiency, we have hope in God’s promise, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). God created us with good limits so we would rely on his limitlessness. When we come to the end of our rope, God’s is unending. While the world portrays mothers as superheroes without limits, our weakness in motherhood points us to who God is. Meditating on God’s character transforms our motherhood.
God is Love
When I’m telling my daughter for the hundredth time not to throw her milk, I can feel my patience wearing thin. Yet God’s patient and kind love is never ending. 1 Corinthians 13 is often used as instruction for how we are to love, but it is also a description of God’s love: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful” (v. 4–5). While I deeply love my family, I know that every day I might lose my patience, resent them, and act on my own selfishness. Even when I am unloving, God continues to love me and my family perfectly through his presence and provision. I can rest in his unfailing love, when my own love fails.
God is All-Knowing
I own every “What to Expect” book and check off symptoms and milestones to ensure they occur on time. Yet, I am reminded even now—as I can’t see or know everything about the baby boy in my womb—that as much as I can study, my knowledge will always be limited. But I can trust God because he doesn’t need books or doctors or mom blogs to know what is best. He holds (and originated) all knowledge: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). God’s omniscience prompts me to lay aside my books and close out the blogs and trust in his complete knowledge.
God is Sovereign
Not only does God know everything, he can also do whatever he wills with that knowledge because he is sovereign. Even if I could know what’s going on inside my toddler’s head, her growing stubbornness reveals that I can’t control her. My motherly desires are for my children to love God and act according to his Word, but I have no power over their hearts or minds. Yet, the God who is holding the universe together is also sovereign over my children and me: “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17). This doesn’t mean I don’t train my children up in God’s Word or manage my household well. Rather, I can do these things without anxiety, because it is God who is ultimately sovereign. When my hands overflow with children, grocery bags, or laundry hampers, I can have faith God is holding me and my family in his hands.
God is Faithful
I am quickly distracted by long to-do lists, urgent emails, and my own selfish desires. As much as I love my daughter, in my sinfulness I sometimes choose my needs above hers. I choose my comfort over good discipline. I choose to tune out on my phone instead of playing in a blanket fort. I choose a quick, harsh word instead of a gentle, correcting one. Yet even when I am not faithful as I should be, God’s faithfulness remains: “If we are faithless, he remains faithful” (2 Tim. 2:13). When I make the same selfish decisions over and over, he faithfully draws me back into repentance and faith. I can trust his faithfulness extends to my husband and my children—he will fulfill his promises to them as he will to me. No mothering mistake can ever put me (or my family) out of reach of God’s faithfulness.
God is Gracious
As I close the door to my daughter’s bedroom for the last time at night, I let out a deep breath. While I remember all the giggles and cuddles, I also recall every harsh word and selfish attitude. I struggle with the inward condemnation saying I blew it again, but God speaks this truth to my heart: “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Psalm 145:8). God’s grace covers my imperfect mothering. This grace doesn’t lead me to give up trying to be a good mom, instead, it spurs me on to walk in his grace and show his grace through my motherhood. I confess my sins to my daughter and hold her hand as we run together to Jesus for his grace and mercy.
Every day, God reveals to us how his character strengthens our obedience as mothers. Whether we are feeling discouraged or prideful right now as a mom, we can turn our eyes away from ourselves and look to Christ. Instead of believing the lie, “I am enough!” we can confidently boast, “He is enough!”—letting who God is transform our motherhood.
