Ferocious Motherhood

This morning the kids and I were driving to church. It is such a beautiful drive in the spring. Everything is green and the sky a robin's egg blue. We slowed to a stop at a stop sign, and as I was glancing up at the sky, I noticed a peculiar scene taking place! This tiny mama bird chasing and pecking at a big black crow. He apparently had disturbed her nest and she was letting him have it! It was so funny to watch. He was afraid of her and laboring in vain to get away from her pecking. I was so caught up in all the drama unfolding that I didn't pay much attention to the drivers behind me until I became conscious of their their impatience. Kindly prompted, I drove on, but it really struck me that mama didn't have any concept of her small size. Her instinctual drive to protect her young moved her to take on a bird at least four times her size.

Sometimes, as a mom, I look at myself in the mirror and all I see is little. Tiny and weak. I am so small in comparison to the big things that come my way and the way of my children. I wonder how am I going to take on those things? They seem so huge. They seem too much for me to handle. They seem so terribly overwhelming. Statistics, information, books, articles, the nightly news all serve to stir me to doubt and fear. Well meaning people with opinions, comments and sometimes just plain thoughtless words gnaw at my heart confirming what I already know about the limits of my own abilities and knowledge.

That mama bird served to remind me that there is Someone inside my heart that gives me His strength to overcome all the obstacles. Even the ones that seem enormous. Yes, I am small, but He is big. Yes, I am weak, but He is strong. I am a ferocious force to be reckoned with when the world and the adversary mess with my young, because of His power that dwells within me! As I have heard it said many times, it isn't the size of the problem but the size of my God. When I am tempted to focus on my weakness, I must turn my eyes to His strength.

Psalm 18:32: 32 God arms me with strength, and he makes my way perfect.

Lord God, please forgive me for thinking for one minute that I cannot, I am unable, I am too small, I am too weak, I am not good enough.... I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me! In Jesus Name, Amen