Mothers’ Day Post: The Calling

Have you ever been in church or watched a sermon or something and been like “The pastor is talking about me!” only to realize that the friend you were with had the same reaction? It’s the same sermon, same words, same intonations but relevant in two very unrelated situations. Well, in a nutshell, I can say that that’s been my mum.

My mother’s four children have distinctly different personalities. We love different things, dislike different things, find different things intriguing. But somehow, my mother has been what each of us have needed and didn’t need to change who she is to do just that. I’ve watched her be strong, loving, firm, gentle, composed, energetic, and even frustrated when it came to her children. Along with my father, she has been a pillar that held up our family even when we didn’t know it needed holding. Like Paul in the Bible wrote “I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also” (2 Tim 1:5), my family has seen how her faith has protected our family. She has been all this and much more to her children.

My motherhood is without doubt almost entirely based on how my mother raised us. Her ability to be everything she was and is to her family is just a small reflection of the fullness of who she is and what she carries on the inside of her. It makes me reflect on my own journey as a mother in the sense that who I am and what I have within will carry my child through her journey in life. That’s quite some pressure, isn’t it? But what if you saw it as a specific calling?

Think of your life and where your journey has taken you to and brought you from. Now think of that person and people who managed to walk with you along the way. How in almost all of those circumstances, they had exactly what you needed. They either gave you something, pointed you to someone or taught you something that got you through. I believe that that’s the same thing with motherhood. My mother could be all that her children needed her to be because God put specific things in her that we needed. In the Christian faith, we believe that God equips us for our specific calling. He will give you the gift of mercy to be a nurse, the gift of patience for a teacher, the gift of exhortation for a minister, how much more for a mother whose calling is “to bring up a child in the ways of the Lord?” (Prov 22:6)

I am a strong believer in the fact that I am a mother to my child, this specific child, for two reasons: God has a mission for me that is linked to my child and secondly, God has a mission for my child that is linked to me. When we see motherhood as more than a responsibility for a child and see it as a calling for that specific child (their personality, hopes, dreams, fears, life’s purpose), then the game changes. We become more involved, more responsible, more in-the-game and overall better mums. So, this day, I celebrate my mum who was everything and more than she needed to be and I’m grateful to God who made her in such a wholesome way. Happy Mothers’ Day!