Last Updated on March 11, 2024
On the other side of my chicken nuggets and lemonade sat my friend, a mom of four with a baby on her knee, struggling to keep him happy so we could catch up.
Usually we came to these lunch dates full of motivation, ready to inspire one another in our mom lives. But on this day, we both felt worn thin. It was the end of Christmas break and the middle of a long cold and flu season. After glancing to make sure I could still spot my kids in the play area, I looked at my friend and confessed: “I feel like I have nothing to offer.”
My friend was asking about my writing and my work on MomLife Today, and I was gut-level honest in the moment. “I feel like I only do a few things right in motherhood, and I’ve already written about those 100 times.”
“Write that,” she told me, as I reached for a cold waffle fry. “Write about what you do wrong.”
My friend knows I try to be as transparent as possible in all my work, and we both agreed there’s a certain perception about women who write online, that they have it all together or that they’re exemplary mothers.
So here I am – back home in my unmade bed beside a pile of dirty laundry with a toilet in my line of sight that desperately needs to be scrubbed – to tell you I’m just another mom. I’m a mom who yells too much. It’s my constant, every day battle that I sometimes win but too often lose. I’m a mom whose kids don’t obey very well and who gets embarrassed when they don’t obey in front of others. I’m a mom who loves Jesus but does a lousy job of spending consistent quiet time with Him. I’m a mom who fears her kids will turn out lazy because she hasn’t taught them well enough how to do chores. I’m a mom who buys too many convenience meals, questions every discipline action, and has never cleaned her baseboards.
Do you relate at all?
I recently got an email from a stranger — a mom of two who said she was a long-time follower of my old blog. She started asking me questions about discipline strategies for strong-willed children and what was most effective.
Y’all. I had to be honest with her too. I am just an imperfect, sleep-deprived, grace-dependent mama like her, who happens to have a keyboard in front of me. I shared with her what I could, but I don’t have it all figured out.
I do have some strengths. I know the giftings God has given me, and there are areas of parenthood where I feel confident. (You can read some of my other posts to see what those are) But this post is to tell you that behind my carefully selected profile picture, I’m just a mama who needed God’s new mercies this morning.
[verse reference=”Lamentations 3:22-23″]The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.[/verse]
Motherhood includes many trying, depleting days but so many fulfilling, joy-filled ones too. I’m thankful we moms can walk this journey together, raw, honest, and encouraged that we’re not alone.
