Why You Are So Good At What You Do

By Katharine Grubb

When did it first occur to you that you were responsible for another person? Was it while you were pregnant for the first time? When you were awakened in the night by a hungry baby? When your sweet bundle of joy vomited on the floor and you realized that no one else was going to clean it up?

When we feel the enormity of this job, sometimes we get a little shaky in our Uggs. This is scary. We have to make all the right decisions, we have to understand their needs, we have to be there. It’s no wonder that we often feel overwhelmed or panicky or completely insufficient for the monumental task of raising a healthy, happy child.

Was it an accident that we’re doing this job? (Don’t answer that publicly.) Was it some cosmic joke that put a helpless infant in the arms of a woman who may, at times, be scatterbrained or obsessive or fearful or anxious or overly emotional?

God says no. No accident. God put this baby and this mother together for a reason.

Psalm 139:13, 15-16 says: For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

This is the amazing part, that He knows all about your weaknesses and gave you the baby anyway.

This has two serious implications for us as mothers.

First: Our strengths and weaknesses are exactly right for mothering this particular child. That’s really hard to believe when you and the willful toddler are fighting round six hundred and twelve, but it’s true. Some of us are detail conscious and our children will learn how to do tasks well through us. Some of us are whimsical and creative and this too will bless our children when they need a story told, or a great birthday party or a truth illustrated to them. Some us are great with people and our children will learn compassion from us. Some of us are leaders and our children are our first followers.

I think that some of us restrict our gifts to those things that are measurable, like how good a seamstress we are or whether or not we can cut our kids’ hair, or what we studied in college. But I think our gifts are bigger and broader than that---like how we view holidays, or our love of books or what makes us laugh. We are bigger and better than what we see.

But when our children see us, they don’t see a college degree, qualifications, or bundles of weaknesses and insecurities (at least not until they’re teenagers). They see comfort and safety and life. Our children see in us what God put there to bless them. We are stronger and more effective and better at our jobs than we think.

Take comfort in this, Mom. God always knows what He’s doing, even when we don’t. The second implication is this: we can always ask for help. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says this: But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

That means that God longs to pour His strength into our weak lives. When we feel like we can’t face another sleepless night, when we’ve lost our tempers with our child again, when we feel overwhelmed or panicky or completely insufficient, we can ask for strength. We can ask for solutions. We can ask for rest. God will pour out on us His strength so that we fulfill our destinies just as He planned all along.

We are mothers not by accident (regardless of the circumstances), not by careful planning, nor not by simple biology. We are mothers because God blessed us with the gift of children so that He can glorify himself.

Take comfort in this, Mom. God always knows what He’s doing, even when we don’t.