Being Confident As Mom

For the very first time, I’m joining up with the “Build ‘Em Up” series hosted by Erin, Jennifer, Kelly and Courtney.  Today’s topic is about being confident in your choices in motherhood.  It seems like every where we turn, moms are debating about the “right” way to parent a child.  I’m sure lots of other blogs joining in on this link-up are going to mention the mommy wars in one way or another, and I have my own thoughts on that too, but I’m going to go in another direction with this. 

So what does it mean to be confident in motherhood?  To me it means knowing exactly who and what I want Kate to be when she grows up.   Especially to those with younger children (Kate is 21 months), I’m sure you are thinking “But there’s no WAY I know who my child will be when she grows up!”   While it may be true that I don’t know what kind of job Kate will have, and I don’t know where she will choose to live or if she will choose to get married and have a family, I do know exactly who I want her to be when she grows up.  More specifically, I know WHOSE I want her to be. 

Now I know that we’re all children of God in that He created each and every one of us.  But, I desperately want Kate to know Jesus Christ personally as her Savior and Lord, which is a completely personal decision that she will have to make as she gets older.  However, I can do everything in my power to make sure she knows the love of Christ and the power of the cross.  And when I sit at night and read a bible story to her about Daniel and the lion’s den, or David and Goliath, or Jesus feeding the 5,000, I can be confident in knowing that at least for the next 10 minutes, I am doing exactly what God created me to do as Kate’s mom.  I’m teaching her about Him.

So to me, being confident in motherhood means knowing what my role is as Kate’s mom.  Yes, I need to teach her manners, and how to work hard, and to love others, and a ton of other things, but my biggest role as a parent is to teach her about Jesus in everything that I do.  That’s a big job because it not only entails teaching her about Jesus, but living Jesus in front of her.  

And one day if she does choose to make the decision to trust Jesus with her life, I’ll be confident in knowing that all of the OTHER stuff in her life will work out.  She might not have the biggest house, or the nicest car, but she’ll know what true joy is.  And that’s more than I could ever hope for her.

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
Romans 8:28