There are stand-out moments in time when I am the mom I want to be.
I had one such moment on a merry-go-round with my middle-est of middle children. It was just me and her.
I was a mom with no distractions tempting me to take my eyes off of her. It was just us, going round and round, up and down.
The world was right for a few minutes. I was able to focus on the cute way she forms words and the way her eyebrows move up and down when she’s really excited. We smiled and giggled, happy to be out of the rain.
In the real world, I’m the mom of eight of these wonderful people. Moments like these are not possible in the everyday realm. Don’t you sometimes wish they were?
But is there a chance they’re there, and we’re just missing them somehow?
Perhaps we should have let the phone ring while we were in the middle of a conversation about the purpose of a belly button.
And maybe cold cereal should have taken sloppy joes’ place on the dinner menu that night. But instead, we put off coloring outside the lines with our little Picassos in favor of browning some ground beef. Everyone cheers for cold cereal. But who cheers for the mama who foregoes coloring for ground beef?
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” they say, “you’re doing a great job. You can’t be everything to everyone.”
But don’t we mamas know we are easily distractible? Even self-absorbed sometimes and focused on the wrong things? What if the cure to all of this is one we don’t want to admit, nor are we ready to embrace?
Just this.
14 but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 19:14
Jesus was busy. Let’s just say He had a wee bit of ministry going on during those years.
He didn’t receive texts, drive carpool, nor was He a mom. But He had so many reasons to be justified in sending those children who approached him on their way. He could have told them how exhausted He was, and that He just needed a little time and space to get His head on straight. He could have even played the “I’m communicating with my Father right now” card. But He didn’t. He let them come.
But Amanda, Jesus didn’t have little ones pulling on His robe all day long. No, but He did have twelve big ones following Him everywhere asking some pretty dumb questions.
But Amanda, He never sinned. It was no big deal for Him to handle those big fellas hanging on His every word and dealing with their immaturity at times. The Bible documents times Jesus faced temptation, so we know things were not always rosy.
As Lysa TerKeurst said two summers to a crowd of us speakers and writers, “It’s time we cut the buts.”
“But I need to keep sailing through my to-do list, I can’t possibly sit on the floor and have a tea party right now.” Sometimes we do, but most of the time our people need us more.
Let’s cut the but, and see what that looks like:
“My to-do list can wait until naptime, or maybe I can try again tomorrow and pray for a window of opportunity and silence to make those phone calls.” That’s better!
Cutting the buts takes practice. “Buts” have a way of weaseling into our thoughts, conversations, and actions if we let them.
Let’s see how many buts we can cut today. Giving us more opportunity to be the moms we want to be.
Amanda Bacon
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