Mums do a lot. There are sacrifices made, opportunities passed up, time and energy spent. On Mother’s Day, gratitude for all of this spills out and mums get cards, flowers, special dinners and gifts. But Mother’s Day is only one day! And every day involves more of the same sacrifice, without all the thanks.
How do mums hold on to hope and life when daily sacrifices feel like little deaths? How do we find rest? And what do we make of how weak and weary we feel? Three Bible verses can help mums answer these questions.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).
What can one solitary seed do? Well, if it dies in the earth, it can do a lot! Much more than if it stayed one solitary seed without soil, water and sun. It will bear much fruit. This is the power of a seed: It can break open and produce life.
In this parable, Jesus is the seed. He’s the grain of wheat who willingly buried himself under dirt in death. The resurrection of Christ is the life, and the abundance of fruit are the children of God given to Jesus (John 17:6).
We must learn the gentle and lowly heart of Jesus, which is the humility to say, “I can’t do it”. We find rest by being humbly dependent on our Creator.
But mums can also be that seed. When we willingly lay our lives down every day (even when we don’t feel like it) we’re covering ourselves up in burial. We’re going down as we raise others up. Now, the harvest we produce might not always be clearly apparent. It might take years to see fruit. But if we are faithful, we’ll see fruit in our hearts, because the hard work of service and sacrifice gradually trains us in the fruits of the Spirit. We might also see a harvest of fruit in our children and coming generations, because of the “death” of one life.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
In our mothering efforts of sacrifice and service we can lose balance. Sometimes we don’t serve out of a place of rest. Sometimes we try too hard to do it all and be it all to everyone in our lives. And it just doesn’t work. We get burned out. Rest is an act of humility, because we lean into our limitations and know we are only human and not God.
Adam and Eve were created to need God before sin even entered the world. Jesus showed us what it means to be human: to go off and commune with God, to nap, to not go to every town and city even if there is a need, and to take time for physical nourishment. It’s not a sin to be limited and finite in a human body. In fact, the more we depend on God for strength, and take stock of our limitations, the more mature we are in our Christian walk. We were created to have physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. We must learn the gentle and lowly heart of Jesus, which is the humility to say, “I can’t do it”. We find rest by being humbly dependent on our Creator.
“But the Lord said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness'. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
We are weary mums, because we are needy creatures. It’s normal and natural for our tanks to run low. Good news for us: we are part of Christ’s upside-down kingdom. This is where the place of weakness is good for us. Knowing and admitting weakness is a strength in the kingdom of God!
If we are faithful, we’ll see fruit in our hearts, because the hard work of service and sacrifice gradually trains us in the fruits of the Spirit.
Paul is telling us in the verse above that God loves to meet us in our weakness, because his grace is sufficient for us. His power is perfect for our weakness. Paul is even encouraging us to boast in our weaknesses, because then the power of Christ will rest on us. The call here sounds so strange to ears who are used to relying on our own grit and muscle, our own devices, and the “pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps” mentality. But Christ’s power indeed rests on weary mums.
Even on days like Mother’s Day, mums can be weary. We’re still that seed being buried in sacrifice and service, we’re still learning the humility of rest, and we so desperately want to be strong all the time, but we can’t help feeling weak. Yet, this is a perfect place to be in God’s upside-down kingdom. We’re in a fertile place of growth, because he meets us with power, strength, and grace when we admit our need and come to him in humble dependence.
For more biblical encouragement for weary moms, check out The End of Me by Liz Wann. This short, easy-to-read book encourages mothers to depend on Christ when they reach their limits.
Liz Wann lives in West Philadelphia with her husband Josh and their three children. She is a regular contributor to desiringGod.org, Revive Our Hearts, and ERLC.com. She is also editor-in-chief at Morning by Morning. She can be found online at LizWann.com.
