All that as background for sharing this link:
Adjusting to a New Baby, Ad Addendum
I was reading along thinking yup, I knew that, got it, etc. etc. and generally feeling like I had nailed the whole "adjusting to new baby" thing with each of my kiddos. Food, fat clothes, taking it easy early on. No sweat. Maybe I'm just lazy and I like to eat so new motherhood really suits me.
Then I got to #6: Never underestimate the spiritual warfare that occurs when new life is born.
I could practically feel the words leap from the screen to punch me in the face.
Reading through the first paragraph felt like a firsthand glimpse of my thought life and heart attitudes in the first weeks of having a new baby home. Who am I kidding, these are thoughts I struggled with this very morning.
See what you think:
When a new life is born, the devil begins to wreak havoc on your home especially the mother. He is the father of lies. He hates life and loves death so every time life is born, a part of you will pay in this war. Although, his lies come in forms that we usually don't recognize. "This is too much for one man." "Why are you wasting your life?" "Look at what you once were." "Your body is trashed." "This can't be right to be this tired and overwhelmed." "Our marriage is a mess." "I am not a good mother to the ones I have, why would I have more children." "I can't seem to get it right." "I am so lonely." "I am losing my mind." "I don't do well without sleep." "You are better than this." "They would be better off without you." "I am much better at helping others than my own children."I was once so organized and now I can barely get out of bed." "So and so is always with it, why can't I be like her?" "Everybody does well after a baby, except me."
Poor body image? Negative thoughts about my spouse? Despair about the condition of my home and energy level? Wallowing in the loneliness of caring for two small children all by myself, knowing my husband has a work dinner and will be home later than usual today? Comparing myself with other moms who share idealized glimpses of their adorable, well-scrubbed children and brightly lit homes on Facebook?
Check, check, and check. However many checks that is. Got 'em all.
So apparently I am pathetic and on the losing side (at the moment) of some serious spiritual warfare. I wonder if Nancy and Dannah would mind much if I undertook a spinoff of their books for moms. I Googled it and found a few different blog offerings and a "Lies Homeschooling Moms Believe". Clearly, this is something that we struggle with.
I need some Truth in my life, and pronto. Flipping open my Bible, it falls open to Job. Ironic, perhaps, that the first passage I see is, "My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the graveyard is ready for me." I'm not sure whether to identify with Job here, or consider this a reality check that my days full of laundry, crumbs, and urine-saturated chair cushions are more a sign of blessing than of suffering. My hunch is that God would have me go with the latter. Self-pity much?
I turn next to an old favorite, a passage that brought me comfort through my angsty teenage years. Today I am weary in different ways and have need of a different kind of strength. But my Supplier is unchanged.
"Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord will renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not be faint." [Isa. 40:31]
I'm scanning down the words at the far right of each line: faint, weary, exhausted. Ah, that would be me. But then I trace back just a bit further and see the word "not". Not faint, Not weary, Not exhausted. And even further back in each line and I'm astounded by the use of the emphatic, "they SHALL...". What a promise! They who wait for the Lord, seek His strength and find contentment in Him regardless of the season of life, they shall not only NOT be weary, but they shall run!
So, I feel encouraged and motivated. At least a little bit convicted that I have not been waiting on the Lord lately, or else I might not find myself feeling so depleted. Now, though, there is at least a refreshment of my spirit, such that I feel more likely to choose contentment and joy in my remaining duties today. If this excerpt from Isaiah 40 didn't do it for you, I encourage you to open the Scriptures and read the whole of Isaiah 40. Be reminded of the vastness and might and power of the God who is our strength.
And if you are a mom in need of particular tender mercy from the Lord today, as I find myself, please locate verse 11: "He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young."
We are His lambs, and He gently leads those that are with young.
Gentle Father, help me to show this same tenderness and gentleness to my children this day and always. I have such need of your help; without you, I can do nothing but hate my children, be annoyed and impatient and frustrated at their needs. Yet you do not treat me with annoyance, impatience, nor frustration, even on my most pitiable days. Pour our your grace and strength upon me; cause me to wait upon you and to find contentment in this calling as a mother. As you love me, move my heart and my hands and my tongue to love my children in imitation of your perfect example.
Thank you most of all for Jesus, who covers every mothering sin, both of omission and comission, with His precious, plenteous blood. Let me always point my children to His completed work for us. Amen.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Soli deo gloria!!
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