So often we want encouragement from other people….someone to tell us that we are doing a GREAT job, and that no one could do it better, even though we have serious doubts about that. We want to feel that what we are doing is making a difference.
On the other hand, we shrink from that praise because we know all too well where we fail. If someone should comment on our well-behaved children, we may have an inward shudder as we recall the last fracas with that most obstinate of children — #3 son or daughter. We didn’t look too good that day, and the memory still burns. If someone comments on our lovely home, we are immediately seized with guilt because we feel sure we have spent too much time on that, and not enough on the kids. If our home is a wreck, we feel guilty for not being more in control….for having plans constantly going awry….for struggling with laziness and a desire to feed our own needy selves.
Is there any hope for a cessation of the guilt? When will it all go away?
I am happy to tell you that some of that load lifts as each child is safely launched. The difficult part is that God leaves us to wrestle with our own sins and character faults until that happens. This is good. As you seek to become a better mother, wife, teacher, church member, neighbor, friend, etc., God is making you more like Christ. As you struggle to overcome your sins, and to develop the fruits of the Spirit, and to bring forth excellent children, you will continue to see good change in yourself. If you give up on that, you will forever regret it.
Paul says in II Thess. 3:13, “But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in well doing.” This little part of Scripture is a continual comfort to me as I daily seek to pull myself together for Christ’s sake. May you also be challenged and comforted by it.