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Can I just say that most days I feel as if I’m holding on by a thread?
I’ve told my husband often that I feel I can hardly keep my head above water. I have a running to-do list that never seems to get anything checked off but has more additions each passing day. I think my floor was last mopped five months ago by my mother-in-law while I was on best rest. I have to open closet doors slowly to avoid an avalanche of the contents inside.
Just writing it down now makes me cringe, and I’m fighting everything inside me to sit at this computer and write instead of making the most of nap time to get something accomplished. In my head I have this idea of what a godly mother looks like and how she runs her home and I never live up to it. So many days I feel like a mediocre mother. I miss the mark in so many areas and by the end of the day am on the verge of tears. Just for fun, throw in the terrible two’s and both children teething at the same time.
I am in survival mode.
Monday mornings I have the blessing of meeting with a group of ladies for Beth Moore’s study of Deuteronomy. What a joy it has been! Today I received the encouragement my heart so desperately needed to hear. Bear with me as I paraphrase Beth Moore’s words.
In order to be a great mother in the eyes of God, only one thing is needed. It is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5).
Oh, praise God!
Only ONE thing is needed! Did you get that? Did you? JUST ONE!
I wish my writing could adequately express the joy and relief simultaneously felt when God opened my eyes to “His To-Do List.” I have spent so much time in prayer not knowing what or how to pray, been in the Word, and even memorized more Scripture to refocus my daily discouraged heart, but nothing has encouraged me like this.
PRAISE GOD FOR A FRESH & TIMELY WORD!
My need to accomplish these projects and my expectations of all I should be are surrendered because there is only ONE thing that is required of me in the eyes of God. Love Him first.
When asked by the Pharisees what commandment was most important, Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). I have heard these verses many times, but today was the first time God spoke to my momma heart through them.
Before Moses told the Israelites to impress the commandments on their children, he first told them to love God with everything they had. There’s something to learn from that. A pitcher must first be filled with water before it can pour water into another glass. This is such simple truth, but my busyness had choked it out. Let’s grow and move forward by going back to the basics.
So to the mothers of babies five days or fifteen years, to the grandmothers, to those who may not have children but are getting lost in the business of life, just stop. Love God. Love Him with all your heart. Love Him with all your soul and strength. If you feel that you don’t even know how to do that, join me in praying for it. Pray right now that God would help you love Him with all your mind, soul, and strength. Pray for a love that fills your entire being. I wonder what God could do with each of us praying this over the course of a year.
Place Deuteronomy 6:5 in a place you will see every day and use this as a reminder to pray about God’s greatest command. Then…let us THRIVE!
About Lacey Hughes
Lacey is a first generation pastor’s wife with a desire to share the joy of the Lord with those around her. She is the wife to Les Hughes III, senior pastor at Providence Baptist Church in Jayess, Mississippi. They have a two year old daughter and a son they welcomed December 2014. Lacey is a stay at home mom who loves building community with the people around her and encouraging women of all ages to seek a deeper relationship with the Lord.
