To every Mama battling busy, feeling behind —
You who fight fatigue, struggle over fear, and worry about the future –
We know — mothering can strip the strongest woman thin — and this really is a tough gig.
No doubt, it brings lots of joy.
But there’s no mistaking it — lots of heartaches too.
But may we encourage you, Friend, with just one word?
*Come*
Come as you are. Come with whatever you’ve got. Come with all that’s left in you. Or come bringing nothing at all.
Come confused. Come angry. Come wearied.
It’s really okay.
We want you.The ordinary, simply beautiful you. And we see you.
Whatever your challenges may be, may we whisper it to your heart?
You’re celebrated, cherished, and cheered for here!
You can simply be.
You don’t have to have achieved, or have conquered, or figured your way out — wherever you are, whoever you may be, just come.
With our own brood, there have been so many times I’m overcome by an acute sense of need; the continual feeling that I don’t have what it takes to raise them right, or launch them strong.
This hymn echoes it right for me:
I need thee every hour. Most gracious Lord No tender voice like thine. Can peace afford
Many times I feel the fatigue yet I long so much to give, worn yet I hope to worship.
Can it really be holy ground when you have tiny bodies dangling off your feet? Could God be near and I feel so distant?
I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every hour I need Thee! O bless me now, Savior, I come to Thee.
Between being sleep deprived to being constantly on my feet, and then the refereeing when they were a little older — busting up fights and managing conflicts — would the work of a Mama ever end?
I need thee every hour. Stay thou near by Temptations loose their power When thou art nigh
More than anything, I thirst for a sense of peace in this passage of motherhood.
Do you sometimes feel the same?
Annie Sherwood Hawks, writer of this classic hymn, speaks to our Mama struggle — “we need You Lord, o we need You, every hour we need You…”
Can we learn to fully live even in all these? The mess, the constant move, the chaos, the inadequacies?
Can we learn to be mindfully joyful, intentionally thankful — and “just come?”
”the questions in life are remarkably few, and they are all answered by the words, ‘Come Unto Me’, not so much, ‘do this, don’t do that’ –
If I will come to Jesus, my actual life will be brought into accordance with my real desires –
the desire for sin will cease and the song of the Lord begins.
Oswald Chambers
Perhaps if we can make it our singular aim to simply come — continually just as we are, and just as the world finds us today — and to be attentive to our life in the here and now — wouldn’t this remove our languor and exhaustion and infuse us with joy for our everyday?
I’m training my own heart to stop dancing around the periphery — to simply come in — even when I haven’t got what it takes — and simply receive — because this moves me from the form into the matter.
Because my Friend, Peace is a Person, and His heart beats for us —
It’s our real coming that produces a real rest because she who simply comes is renewed — set free from the burden of comparison, fear, and guilt.
Don’t wait until normal resumes — the world’s embracing herself for a new normal — and we shouldn’t linger around waiting for a big break before we simply come.
Yeah, bring them all in.
Carry all those little ones even when they can’t sit still and we can’t quite concentrate.
Come knee-deep in desperation even when the teenagers are rebelling and the home tumultuous.
Because in each and every stage and season of motherhood, our parenting and the pew need never clash — they can simply collide into all things messy yet beautiful.https://www.youtube.com/embed/GlCe8RfO6Pk?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparentCome worship with us? It isn’t slick but this song sung by the Husband reminds me to simply come!
