Callings and Momhood
Reading mothering books while trying to be a mother is, regrettably, not very high on my list of priorities. The book The High Calling of Motherhood, written by Chimene Shipley Dupler happens to be one of only a small handful of books I've read on being a mom. It was encouraging, then, to find that within 36 pages of her book a common idea was being unfolded in a was that truly struck me for the first time. Instead of paraphrasing, I'll just quote her directly:
You have been handpicked by God Almighty to be the mother of your children. You were chosen to be the mother to the very children that you call your own, whether biological or through adoption. It has been known and planned by God from the foundations of the earth. Our God is an intentional God. The gift of motherhood is not an accident. There has been no mistake. You have been chosen and called to be the mother of your sons and daughters.
There is so much detail in the intricacy of cells coming together to become a human life as each child is knit together with such care and attention in our wombs. With that same precision, God gave you the exact children He planned for you from the foundations of the world. Being chosen adds an extreme soberness to the responsibility we have as mothers. God is entrusting us with the care and training of our children. When we stop long enough to let that marinate, we can understand more fully the honor and responsibility we have been given by God Himself ...
If God chose me to be the mother of my three daughters, then He is going to provide me with the resources that I need to fully care for them as unique individuals. (pg 36).
Psalm 139 says:
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
I'd read and heard those verses countless times, but I'd never thought of them from a mother's perspective. God intricately wove my two children together in my womb. Before he even started that process, he knew the days of my children's lives and how each day would be spent. He saw every precious second tick by and knew what the futures of my children would hold before they had even begun being formed inside my belly.
God knew that at 17 months little Kev would be cutting four molars, battling the flu, suffering from an ear infection and taking over our bed every night due to that winning combination. He knew that our little daughter, barely nine weeks into her life, would be experiencing the final flutters of her heart, experiencing the last seconds of being inside her mother, and opening her new, perfect eyes to see the face of Jesus at about that same time.
God knew her entire, short life's story before she came into existence. He know's little Kev's story, from beginning to end. He knows our future children's names and personalities, their very DNA, and they aren't even part of our family portrait yet.
He knows them and chose me to be their mother. He knows both little Kev's strengths and mine, both his weaknesses and mine, and he chose me to raise little Kev to manhood. Dupley states in the last paragraph that because of all of this, "[God will] provide me with the resources that I need to fully care for [my daughters] as unique individuals."
God's choosing to put these children into my care and under my authority means that I am the best person for the job of being the mother of my children, and he makes sure I can handle this calling by giving me all the equipment I need within the person of Jesus.
I'm not good at reading books on momming. I'm not good at reading any books in the nonfiction realm, actually. I get bored quickly, and I blame it on having to have a mind that is constantly trying to keep up with my son, manage a home, and maintain business, family, and friend relationships. Due to these things it was an encouragement to pick up this book (extremely hesitantly, I might add), reach page 36, and be so beautifully reminded of the highness of my calling to motherhood, the weightiness of responsibility on my shoulders, and the One who offers to carry all my burdens if I will only give them over. Being a mother is the toughest, most heart-breaking, most joy-filled, most satisfying, most exhausting job in the world, and I've never been happier or more honored to call a job MINE.