Have you ever felt like Nephi did? So completely aware of all your sins and imperfections, that you feel deep sorrow?
What about as a Mom?
Motherhood requires everything from us. But after giving our all, we still come up short. Over and over again.
God knew we would be imperfect in our parenting. We may be adults, but in the grand scheme of things, we’re still children, growing up too.
Discouragement is one of Satan’s tools to bring us down. He knows the crucial role of mothers. He understands the influence and power we have in our children’s lives. He will do anything he can to diminish that influence. He tells moms that we are failing and it would be better if we just gave up.
I have been there before. I know that sorrow and pain. I’m guessing others have too.
I used to write a blog about motherhood, but life got too busy and I let it sit dormant for years. One night I revisited the site and was surprised to see from the analytics that I had continued to get thousands of visits. Want to guess what search brought most of my traffic?
“failing as a mom”
My heart just sank as I thought of all of the moms around the world in despair and not knowing what to do or who to turn to.
But we know where to go for help. Look at Nephi’s psalm. His turning point was: “Nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted.”
“Nevertheless” means the thing he’s about to say is MORE THAN what he said previously.
The Atonement of Jesus Christ is BIGGER than all of our mistakes, our failures, our sins and temptations.
As moms, we can turn to Christ to be our “support”, to lead us through our “afflictions”, to “preserve” us, fill us with His love, and “confound [our] enemies”. He will hear our “cry by day” and give us “knowledge by visions in the night-time”, and when we go to Him in mighty prayer, he will send angels down to minister to us (see v. 20-24).
Everything God did for Nephi, He can do for us. In a personal way, just how we need it. We just need to go to Him often, as Nephi did.
Through the Savior, we can find reason to “rejoice” again in motherhood. Not that things will be perfect, or that we will have overcome all of our weaknesses. But we can find hope and joy in Christ, as we trust in Him to make up the difference.
He can fill our hearts, and help us have “place no more for the enemy of [our] soul”.
How has Christ has helped you overcome adversity in motherhood? Please share!
pic #1 from canva
pic #2 from Walter Rane
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