Once upon a time, there was a woman who wanted to become a mother so badly she could hardly stand it. The months turned into years as she prayed and cried out to God because she knew only He could make it happen.
That woman could be any number of women. Many of us know how that feels.
The first episode of Chasing Hard Podcast was about infertility. You can listen here to Elizabeth Laing Thompson and me as we talked about the heartache of infertility.
My next guest was Natalie Hixson and that’s where I want to focus today. The topic Natalie often talks of is her journey with anger as a mother. I love her openness and vulnerability when talking about this sensitive, personal thing because here’s what she knows, she didn’t have to stay stuck in the place where she didn’t want to be. And this, God is using her story to help other women who struggle with this issue too.
I remember when my kids were young and I was sitting in the office of a counselor. I’m pretty sure I was talking about a struggle I was having as a mother. I needed outside help in order to be the best mother I could be. That was the desire of my heart. I had waited so long to become a mother and I didn’t want to screw it up.
We all screw up. It’s part of the gig. But this therapist gave me the magic that day, which changed the way I parented. He said I only needed to be a good-enough parent. Not in an only-do-enough-to-squeeze-by kind of way. Let me expound. I only needed to be the mother each kid needed me to be. I didn’t have to be top-notch all the time, which is, well duh, no one can, but for each individual child, I only needed to be enough for him or her.
This took a lot of pressure off. My kids were different and I’m guessing yours are too. They process differently and have different personalities, characteristics, and traits. It’s the way God designed it. We need to be able to discern how to meet each child on their terms. They’re not the boss of us 🙂 but to be the best mothers we can be, we need to ask God for insight into the hearts of our children and lean into it.
We talk about different hard things on the podcast. Being a mother comes up a lot. I hope you join us as we exchange ideas and experiences on our parenting journey.