Grounded in Love

Paul prays for the Ephesian believers: "...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God."

Christian motherhood finds its source, its beauty, its uniqueness, it sustenance, in Christ's love.

We cannot give our children love that we do not have. We cannot exhibit love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control unless our eyes are on Christ, unless we begin every day cuddled up in God's arms, listening to Him, drawing strength from His incomprehensible love for us. If we try to force this fruit of the spirit out, it will come out twisted and gnarled and corrupted. We will be gentle in one breath, and hateful in the next. We will run out of energy, and wind up depressed. 

Paradoxically, when we have our eyes on Christ, when we bask in His unconditional love for us, He becomes love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control in us, and it flows naturally out of us to our children, to our husbands, to all others that we encounter.

Satan wants to deflate all mommas by focusing us on our behavior, by enslaving us to checklists of "good things that good moms always do".

Let's put our eyes on our risen Savior, who tenderly loves and cares for us. Let's let him nourish us daily so that we can nourish our precious little ones in turn. Let's turn our eyes to the author and finisher of our faith, and stop living in endless regrets and fears. Let's ask God to use us to touch our children's lives, but not worry about what that will look like. 

May we be rooted and grounded in love, after all, that is, in the end, what helps all children flourish.

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