This article from Titus2atthewell.com was definitely what I needed to hear this week! For some reason, because I have a baby I also feel that I am supposed to be an excellent baker/cook/seamstress/home decorator/ housekeeper, plus an amazing, ever-patient and supportive wife, exercise every single day, get up early every single day, look beautiful and put together every day, and on and on. This article reminded me that even though all of these things are good, I need to just be who God wants me to be today. And all those good things I want to be as a Christian women - many will come in time. But not all at once. Please read this, even if you aren't married or a mom, and read it especially if you are a woman. The author includes a prayer at the end of the article, and in it she says that, "If we are feeling driven and beaten down it is not because of You, it is likely us doing more than You expect from us..."
I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of living in self-imposed guilt. The expectations I place on myself are far more than God expects from me, yet I often set them up as a god in my life. Every night when I realize I haven't measured up, I feel guilty, stressed, and beaten down. This is not from God. This is not abiding, remaining, in His love.
Furthermore, I want to teach my daughter to be content in who God made her to be. I don't want her to be endlessly striving, comparing herself to others or to unreachable standards. I want her to be beautiful as she lives in the quiet pastures the Shepherd leads her beside - just living out the life He chose for her.
Enjoy and embrace the person God created you to be today. And just do that that He requires of you today. Don't try to be everything at once. We can't do it. That's why we need God!
3 comments:
Thank you so much for writing this Leigh, because it really meant alot to me. I've been living under a lot of different forms of self-condemnation lately and I feel like God is constantly trying to show me that I'm wrong to walk under that. Your blog was one of those ways He used.
Norah is so beautiful! Her face has matured :) I know people always say Peyton has such big eyes... but I think Norah might be right there with her! Wow! Her eyes are so striking!
I miss and love you both!
I will say, as a mom of an almost 3 year old, that it does get easier. But this season your in, it is just about loving your daughter and enjoying the moments you have with her. They are fleeting. (Trust me on this!!)
As she gets older, even within months, you will see that you are able to easily do more, be more, succeed in more.
And Leigh, you ARE beautiful. You don't have to try to be, you just are. I love you!! :)
Leigh, I just love reading your blog. You always have such great reflections - always so pertinent for me (which probably has something to do with the fact that we are both young married homemakers with babies!!)
I HATE hearing that I can't do it all, but I know I've got to come to terms with it (if you could only see me now, you would know how deeply I am in denial...I don't think I have showered in 3 days, and I can count on one hand the times I've exercised since Ava was born. There are dishes in the sink, and laundry spilling out of the bathroom...hahaha. I am not kidding. Don't you feel awesome now?? :)
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