Today in Australia we celebrate Mother’s Day and all that it means to be a Mum. As my kids and husband celebrate with me I’ve been thinking about how just the word Mum carries a lot of expectations of what you will do, say, and live like.
As a Mum of six kids and a grandparent of two grandbabies I’ve learnt that God never expected that we would be everything to our children, spouse, friends, church, work or extended family. It’s when we try to be “everything” that we end up exhausted and feeling less than we are. This can then cause us to move further and further away from the God given dreams and purpose that we were made for.
One of the keys to avoiding this is to ask God for wisdom as to what is important in our lives in the season we are in.
The bible teaches us that, “If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought.” (James 1:5)
We can all be a lot of things and work very hard at them, but perhaps it would be wiser and more fulfilling to ask, “God what is important for me today?”
There is an account in the bible about two sisters who Jesus instructed in what was truly important. Mary and Martha were friends of Jesus and He and the disciples had come to visit their home. Whilst Mary sat at Jesus’ feet listening to what He was teaching Martha was rushing about with domestic duties. These looked necessary, relevant and even could be termed as to be doing the “right” thing. However when Martha got annoyed at Mary for not helping Jesus corrected her by saying that Mary had chosen to do what was really important – to sit and learn from Him.
The Lord answered her, “Martha, my beloved Martha. Why are you upset and troubled, pulled away by all these many distractions? Are they really that important? Mary has discovered the one thing most important by choosing to sit at my feet. She is undistracted, and I won’t take this privilege from her.” (Luke 10:41-43 TPT)
Jesus was trying to tell Martha to chill out a bit and that the things everyone thinks are important and vital aren’t at all and can wait if necessary.
Today take some time to enquire of Jesus, “What’s important”, not just about being a Mum, (if you are one), but also the other hopes and dreams you hold in your heart. Then ask for God’s wisdom and guidance to help you focus your energy and time in to doing that.
Because when we look back at our life wouldn’t it be great to be able to say with no regrets:
“I chose the important over the urgent”.
“I chose the important over the glamorous”.
“I chose the important over looking successful and popular in the world’s eyes”.
“I chose what’s truly important and I didn’t try to do or be everything”.
I simply walked in the gifts, abilities and assignments God gave me in each season of my life and handed over to Him everything and everyone else and allowed Him to handle it.
This Mother’s Day whether you are a Mum or not I hope and pray that you will know you don’t have to be everything to everyone because that’s God’s job; all you need to know is what’s important and on God’s heart for you. What good thing has he planned for you to walk in and then get busy doing only that today. (Ephesians 2:10)
Happy Mother’s Day.
Prayer: Lord please help me to not try and be everything to everyone but instead for me to take the time to discover what is truly important in this season of my life. That I would only focus upon what you say is important and purposeful and to turn everything else over to you to take care of. In Jesus name Amen.