I recently saw a pro-life video that was very powerful. It was of a young woman who found herself pregnant under less than ideal circumstances. It seemed as if she was being pressured from everyone to abort her baby. But then she broke free from those influences, did some super hero karate chopping to get away from everything, and then felt encouraged as she was told, “You can do this!” Thankfully, the clip recognizes that she may need some help, so it says, “When you need help, reach out and ask! And we’ll help you. Choose your baby. You’ve got what it takes.”
But I couldn’t help but think to myself, “What if you don’t have what it takes?”
Humbled
I remember when I had my first baby. I’ve already talked about how horrible she was in previous blog posts, so I’ll spare everyone the repeated details. But she was very hard. And wow, was the experience humbling. I remember not feeling like I could shower because she always wanted to be held, and if she wasn’t being held, she was crying. It seemed as if half the time, I was crying right along with her. And let me tell you, in those moments, I knew I did not have what it takes. I was a mess.
You can do it!
Our culture loves to sell us on the idea that we can do whatever we want to do. Want to be President of the United States? You’ve got what it takes! Want to be an NBA basketball player? You can do it! Want to be a rock star? Go for it! The problem is, personally, I can do none of the above. I mean, I can still cut up the rug like nobody’s business, but unfortunately, I’m no rock star.
Now, I’m not going to lie – when we rely on our own strength to do things, we can often get quite a lot done. But there will always be a moment (or two or three), when you will be brought to your knees and you have zero control over what’s going on and you have no idea what to do next. The wind will be knocked out of you and you realize, “Maybe I’m not all that I thought I was cracked up to be.”
Parenting
Throughout my life, I’ve had several moments like that. But parenting is one of those jobs where it comes up over and over and over again. My children are the ultimate little sanctifiers. They are truly mirrors into the workings in my own soul at times. I’ll be correcting some behavior of there’s and I suddenly realize, holey-moley. This is my own problem. “Stop being so mean to your sister! Why are you making assumptions about why she said that?” “You need to have more grace, sweetheart. Life’s not fair and it doesn’t matter. You can only control YOU.” And my personal favorite: “STOP YELLING!!!!”
So yes, I realize on a regular basis, I don’t have what it takes on my own strength. But God is so good, that He allows difficult situations into our lives to draw us to Him. He gives us severe mercies for a reason: for our own good, and His glory. He loves us too much for us to think that we can live fruitful lives only by our own strength. And so He shakes things up for us so that we turn to Him and when appropriate, repent of whatever we need to repent of. Then we can move forward and tackle the mountains and the valleys that lie before us, not on our strength, but in His.
Warrior Mama
An unexpected pregnancy is incredibly difficult. And I agree that women who choose life ARE warriors, like the video above talked about. They are strong for choosing what’s right rather than what’s easy. And fight they must for choosing life in this culture that pushes and even celebrates the “right” to kill their babies. But I pray that rather than taking it on as a challenge to be overcome, it is a moment of awakening, whether that’s repenting from a sinful lifestyle, or repenting of feeling entitled to a more comfortable or easy life. Maybe it’s just a moment when we realize, “This is too much for me LORD. You need to carry this, and I trust that You will.” But an awakening of some kind is key. God is so very faithful. The question is, will we be?
Life is beautiful. And being a good mama (or daddy!) is one of the hardest jobs out there. But it truly is the toughest job you will ever love when you follow after Christ. No guarantees on how clean your shirts will be or how much me-time you’ll be able to have, but any and all sacrifices are well worth it. Our job is to prepare ourselves as best we can. And faithfully expect that God will provide the rest (Prov. 21:31). And if we don’t get all that we want, no worries. We must not have needed it.
Children are a blessing (Psalm 127:3). And God is so very good. Amen?
