Motherhood

I'm reading a book called "The Mission of Motherhood" by Sally Clarkson. I've read it before, many years ago.  

This is one of those books where you keep your highlighter and your notebook close at hand.  It's a rich and true look at our role in life: that of a mother.  Sally Clarkson dives in depth into Scripture to find the real definition of motherhood and where it is supposed to figure into our lives as women.

I thought I'd give you a taste of what I found so accurate and genuine in just the first chapter.

~"Because God has blessed me with a husband and children, a part of his call to me is to follow His plan for families.  And that means I am to shepherd the hearts of these children whom He has providentially placed in my care. I am to care for them tenderly and to partner with God and my husband in leading my children to know and love His Word and to follow His will.....
~"I will grow into the kind of person God wants me to be as I live out my life in faith and seek to be faithful in my walk with God; as I nurture and honor my commitment to my husband and children and family and home; as I exercise my skills, training and gifts toward those whom God has placed on my path....
~"In fact, I have come to believe that being a mother encompasses all that is best within me."
~"The mission of motherhood is not simply a lifestyle choice.  It is a divine calling that will indeed affect eternity."

As I have read the first chapter of this book, I think about my role right now as a mother, especially the mother of a boy who will step into adulthood in a mere two months, and as the mother of 7 girls, two of whom are young women now.  Previously I have mourned the loss of the baby stage, of the toddler stage....I have actually thought, deep down, that beyond these stages of babyhood and toddlerhood my role as a mother was over.

Oh, how untrue this is!

I can look at my young man and my two young ladies and rejoice! These three people have become my very best friends, and the ones which I would rather be with than anyone else.  My young ladies have become my sisters! My young man has become all that is best in a protector and friend! 

I can look forward to these very vital years as a time of seeing them try their wings.  I can look at the future and smile because my husband and I have planted seeds in their hearts that are just now starting to blossom.  

I don't have to be sad and mourn and weep at the loss of babyhood and toddlerhood in these three young people.  Sure, the future is unknown and that in itself is cause for a bit of fear on my part, but instead of babies and toddlers in these three, I have gained best friends.

This mindset is extremely new to me.

Sally Clarkson said that "life as a mother is more exciting to me now than ever before~~especially as I begin to see the fruits of my earlier labors. The foundations that were laid in my children's lives, little by little, have given them the ability now to reach for the sky."

 Mothering young adults does not mean that I can sit back and coast along, but maybe God is calling me to see this new chapter in a different way than wearing sackcloth and ashes of mourning.

And as they all still live at home and will for some time, maybe it is time I reach for the sky right along with them, right beside them!