So many days, I get overwhelmed by the mundane trivialities of life. Another meal to serve, another page of math to check, another load of laundry to wash, another diaper to change, another fight to break up. Particularly for those of us with young children, days can run into each other and tasks can feel endless.
“Am I making a difference?” we may wonder. “Does any of this really matter in the lives of my children?”
Some days I struggle to believe that it does matter. I lose vision and lose heart and I want to give up in this great pursuit called motherhood.
This summer, God used a sad and very tangible experience to infuse fresh hope and energy and vision into my soul, and to encourage me to keep pushing forward as a mother.
It was four weeks ago, on a warm summer’s evening, that I said good-bye to her.
Her husband had called that morning, saying this day might be the last. I found a sitter for my children and tearfully ventured to my dear friend Katy’s home to say the words I had dreaded saying. I prayed hard for strength to walk into that familiar home and see the faces she would leave behind and somehow trust that my God was mighty in the midst of even this situation, and that He alone could work it out for His glory and yes, even for good.
You see, Katy was not only my friend, but she was a wife and a mom. A wife to Peter, of over a decade. Devoted, steadfast, faithful, loving.
And a mama to 3 beautiful children, aged 5, 3 and 1. Playmates of my children, and nearly the same ages. They were well loved, carefully nurtured and exceptionally cherished by their mom.
Katy didn’t spend her “mundane” days of laundry, cooking, cleaning and child rearing knowing just how short her time would be with these little ones entrusted to her.
Throughout her 8 month battle with cancer, she fought hard, as only a mother who wants to see her children grow up can fight. She wanted more time. More days to love them. More months to train and shape who they would become. More years to faithfully pray for them and watch them come to know and trust and serve the Lord.
For reasons I may never know, the Lord didn’t give her those extra years or even days. He gave her 5 1/2 short years to mother her children, and to pour into them all that she could.
Not one of us knows how many more years or months or days are written in the book of our lives, or of our children’s lives. And that makes every moment precious because we have it NOW.
Each day is an opportunity to love them. To teach. To train. To set an example of following Jesus wholeheartedly. To share the Gospel. To pray with and for them. To kiss them. To enjoy them. A day to cherish and to use to the fullest.
I’m begging the Lord to help me not to waste a single moment. Will you do the same?
Image by The Welsh Poppy
