Motherhood: A Fight to See
Today’s post is by Amy at Lavender *Sparkles*. She is the wife of Steve and the mother of two-year-old Elijah. I’ve been reading and enjoying her blog for a long time; you should too! Come back Wednesday for another guest post on motherhood.
It was fitting, perhaps, that I was on a walk with my toddler earlier this week when I was gently reminded of how to faithfully walk out the calling of motherhood. I was listening to a podcast (completely unrelated to parenting) in which the speaker noted that faith is the opposite of three things: sight, fear, and doubt. Of course, this isn’t earth-shattering; I know the familiar verse, “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7)–but I was struck by his first point, the direct way he phrased the definition: “Faith is the opposite of sight.”
The more I grow as a mother, the more convinced I am that motherhood is a fight to see: a fight to close my physical eyes and and view my life and my son with eyes of faith. Faith means trusting not what I see in front of me, and not what my emotions loudly proclaim, but what God says is true about Himself, about me, and about my circumstances.
For every moment that I marvel at the ridiculous kissability of my two-year-old’s round cheeks and sweet little lips, there are plenty more moments that my comfort-and-ease-worshipping heart seethes over the inconvenience of what I have been called to do. And it’s at these times when I have to fight to walk by faith, not sight. The only way I can fulfill this calling of motherhood is to trust God’s declaration that my son is a blessing, rather than my heart’s complaint that he is a burden.
The mushy feelings are nice – sometimes just looking at my little boy, I ache over how precious he is – but they aren’t enough to sustain my joy or fuel the endless work. Loving Elijah is a choice: a choice to close my eyes and see, a choice to turn off the inner monologue of complaint and run to my Father with pleas for help and whispers of thanks.
And it’s a choice to trust His promises: that however inadequate I feel, however often I screw up, He will always welcome my desperate begging for help, and He will always provide the grace I need to walk by faith, not by sight.
My life as a stay-at-home mom often doesn’t look very beautiful at first glance. Diapers certainly aren’t pleasant, and meal planning isn’t exactly glamorous. But faith-eyes tell me that these are good works God prepared in advance for me to do today, simple tasks in which I can humbly honor Him.
When I stop critically evaluating my portion and examining everyone else’s greener grass, when I choose to believe what God says about these boundary lines He has laid out for my life (Psalm 16), I can call my inheritance beautiful.
So today, I will fight to see with eyes of faith.
Mmmm, good stuff. I needed to read this today.
This is a great post! I’m glad to read this, as I hope to be a mother someday as well.
Love this and I plan to remember that motherhood is a “fight to see.” This was particularly powerful as I was preparing my next “With Child” installment and studying the widow of Zarephath and meditating on her faith in the unseen, as she took the step of faith to reach for the last of her flour and oil. We can’t take the next step of motherhood without faith, that’s for sure.