Thoughts on Motherhood

Moms give... an immeasurable amount of love, patience, energy, kindness, understanding, wisdom, healing, and nurturing.

Moms receive... an overflowing heart!

Moms deserve...grace.

Grace involves understanding that they are doing or did their best while learning on the job.

We learn what we’d like to do differently from our childhood. We learn what works for each of our children. We learn that we change over the years and what we thought was right at one point may be different from what we think later.

We are proud of ourselves for putting effort into being a better mom, day after day. Then we turn around and beat ourselves up for the mistakes we make. The overwhelming responsibility for each child we are blessed with is carried daily. We expect perfection from ourselves but always allow our children to make mistakes.

Moms never stop being moms. We are proud of our grown children and in awe of the lives they’ve created. But we are still unsure whether we did everything right. We still wonder if they understand how much we love them and how hard we tried. We wonder if they remember all the good times or only the bad because, let’s be honest, every relationship has both.

As we get older, we wonder if our children realize just how fast time goes by. We wonder whether or not they think about how little time they have left with us. We’ve most likely learned the hard way that one minute you’re telling yourself you’ll see your mom next week and the next minute she’s taken away from you.

Older moms have regrets. The “if onlys” or “I wish I would have’s” play over and over in our minds. We are faced with accepting hurt we caused with absolutely no intention. We are often misunderstood. We are hurt and keep quiet to keep peace. We are concerned about causing problems. We continue to put our children first, always.

Motherhood is the hardest and most rewarding thing to do, not just when we’re young, but as we age.

It’s joy-filled, and it’s heavy.

It’s heartwarming, and it’s heartbreaking.

It’s overwhelming pride, and it’s profound devastation.

But every minute, every day, every month, every year, and every decade, we are beyond grateful and blessed to have been chosen to be our children’s mom.