I recently posted a question on Facebook where I asked mothers about their frustrations, challenges and worries.   One thing I noticed about the responses was how mothers are worried that they will do it wrong.  One of our biggest concerns as mothers is that we will mess things up so bad for our children that they will be scarred for life.  We fear that our children will be laying on a couch years down the road telling someone they have paid to listen, “Let me tell you about my mother.”

I just want to remind tired, frustrated, worried moms that God gives grace to mothers.  The fact is, there is not one of us who will parent perfectly and we need to remember that God forgives our mess-ups.

We will make mistakes.  We will raise our voices too often, we will let them eat too much junk food, we will let them watch a lot of TV, we will give them too many things.  Cereal will be the dinner of choice too many times. We will have times when we discipline too harshly and times when we will not discipline enough. We will not always be the spiritual example we need to be.

And when they get older, our children will make decisions that make us question everything we did.  We will hear ourselves saying things such as, “Didn’t I teach you better?”  We will second guess how we raised them and we may even have regrets that keep us up at night.

It is at this time we need to remember that we have a kind, compassionate, loving Father who gives grace for our mistakes and shortcomings. Micah 7:18 “You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.”  We serve a God who delights in showing us mercy.

God’s mercy allows us to forgive ourselves and wake up the next day and do it better.

Giving Grace to One Another

We need to remember that God gives us grace, and we also have to remember to give grace to one another.

It can be a temptation to look at other mothers and see their mistakes.  It is easy to judge the mother at McDonalds who screams at her children, or the mother at church whose child is the terror of all terrors.  We wonder what a mother did wrong when her teenager rebels and makes poor decisions.

We need to give grace and remember that there may be things going on that we don’t know about.  Maybe someone doesn’t discipline like you do because they were not raised the same way you were. Maybe they are having a bad day and you see them at their worse.  Maybe their child has needs and challenges we don’t know about.  Maybe that mom is tired and worn out because she doesn’t have the support at home of a loving husband.

Just as God delights in giving mercy to us, let’s learn to give mercy to one another.

“But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”

Psalm 86:15

Do you struggle with remembering God’s grace and forgiveness?

Do you worry about parenting perfectly?