Desperate :: Hope for the Mom Who Needs to Breathe

A while back i posted on our Top 6 Parenting Books, recently i finished reading a new book for moms called Desperate. Honestly, if i had the money i'd buy it for every mom of young kids I know! It is full of life, freedom, grace and simply beautifully written. 

Here is part of a chapter that is speaking life to my soul today:

"There is a certain danger of being a young, passionate Christian woman who has little confidence in being an adequate mother. The danger is a willingness to follow anyone who has a passionate and strong voice without knowing how to think biblically or wisely. There are so many voice in contemporary culture that it could make any parent feel overwhelmed.

Since the beginning of time, people have been listening to all the wrong voices. God was walking in the garden in the afternoon one day at the very beginning of creation, looking for His beloved children, Adam and Eve, to commune with them. But they had already been listening to the serpent, the wrong voice. God created them to be His companions and to follow Him. He offered them His guidance, love, protection, and wisdom. They instead chose to ignore God's voice and follow another. Following the wrong voice brought about sin itself - the compulsion to listen to any voice other than God's.

There has always been a dependence in humans on the opinions of others. We want exact formulas and rules, directions that will tell us step by step what to do. Yet from the moment of our fall as humans, when God began His plan to redeem the world, He has desired a people who will live in the tension and mystery of listening to Him, waiting upon Him, and trusting Him by faith.

It is no different today, in our modern world. God wants us to seek to be still and know His voice. It is He who formed us, designed marriage as a beautiful paradigm for our benefit, crafted our bodies to be able to have children, and intentionally constructed the physiology of a baby's dependence on a mother who would nurse him and provide for his needs. Motherhood is God's creative and original idea, and He desires us to take joy in His intricate handiwork. He longs for us to seek Him, to rest in His love, to flourish in His acceptance of us, and to understand His ways for us with our children. When we follow the voice of God and rest in His ability to sustain us as mothers, we will find a true and lasting peace."

- Sally Clarkson {Desperate :: Hope for the Mom Who Needs to Breathe, pg 134-135)

Especially as we await the arrival of #3 this month - how good it is to be reminded of these truths! 

• He made my body.
• He planned for #3 to arrive at such a time as this in our lives (crazy, hectic, sleep-deprived!)
• He beautifully constructed the physiology of a baby's dependence on a mom who would nurse him and provide for him.

To all of my "Mommy" friends... may you rest in God's design, sovereign hand and delight in you as his child today. And may your seek to discern His voice over and above all of the cultural step by step rules as you raise your little ones to love Him.