Everyone around me is so...gifted. It seems like everyone can paint watercolors, has great photography skills, sounds like Mozart on the piano, all while doing crafts with their kids and making their house look like all the pins from Pinterest.
It's enough to make any Mom feel like God must have passed her over in the gift department. I mean, most days I'm happy when I get my 2 loads of laundry washed, dried and folded, keep the dishes washed up and can spend some time reading or being outside with the kids. (Which, by the way, is exactly enough for one day.) But some days I let discontentment get a hold of my heart and I, probably like you, start saying things that are less that flattering.
We say: "I wish I were a creative Mom."
"I'm not near as good of a Mom as so-and-so." "I'm such a failure. If only I decorated and kept my house as perfect as my neighbor." God says: "[I] has given each of you a gift from [my] great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another." -1 Peter 4:10 Comparison is a trap that most Moms walk into with their eyes wide open. Sometimes we even feel like we are practicing humility when we "praise" the good works and gifts of others in a self-deprecating way. We talk longingly of the way our friend keeps her house perfect and our neighbor's kids can speak 3 different languages. If only we were disciplined, neater, craftier, crunchier, holier. If only we were as good as everyone else.
And we say and think these things and they keep us from doing what we can and are supposed to be doing. God says that He has given us all gifts. We all have our own little corner that we are supposed to be making brighter. The gift that we have is valuable and has a very direct purpose.
Maybe you haven't taught your kids a foreign language, but they know how to make and serve coffee when you have friends over. Maybe your kids don't know how to keep a perfect house, but they know how to find the unpopular ones at school and love on them well, because they see you doing the same. Maybe your Instagram looks messy, with unprofessional photos, but you are out doing life with your kids, loving it, and learning lessons together along the way. The point is, you are not meant to be "her," you are meant to be you. God crafted a special gift right into each of us, and if we focused on using that gift to serve God and others well, we'd forget to worry about how inadequate we are compared to everyone else down the block.
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I am on a journey to know Jesus better, and be the wife, mommy and friend that God created me to be, all within the walls of my own little home. <3
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