Almost Ten Already
Megan Breedlove Recently, I was invited to speak to two moms’ groups in another state. I was aware that the coordinator had been trying to put this together for awhile now, and I was excited to hear that everything had been worked out. Unfortunately, I had to decline the date they offered me and request a different date if possible. Why? Because on the day I would have had to fly out, my oldest daughter Ellie will turn 10.
I can hardly believe she’s almost ten already. Almost double digits, despite the fact I gave birth to her only last week. She’s growing up, and I’m not sure where the last 9+ years have gone, but I do know they’ve gone by too fast.
At 9, Ellie is halfway toward leaving home and going to college. She’s more than halfway toward getting her driver’s license. And she’s probably only a few years from the changes that will signal her body is becoming a woman’s body instead of a girl’s.
I vividly remember bringing her home from the hospital after she was born, setting her carrier down in our large brown recliner (nicknamed “Old Faithful”) and thinking, “Now what do we do with her?” Yet that little baby is halfway to being an adult. She’s grown and changed, and that’s great. I want that for her. But sometimes I wish she were still small enough to hold easily in one arm.
Actually, Ellie’s not the only one who’s grown and changed over the past nine-and-a-half years. I have too. Motherhood grows you like nothing else will. But I’ve been growing and changing for a lot longer than I’ve been a mom.
I, too, started out as a little baby (though my kids don’t quite grasp this fact). I’m now a 41-year-old woman and a mom of five. Just the changes involved in getting from that particular point A to that point B are incredible! But they’re not the only changes I’ve experienced. In fact, they’re probably not even the most significant.
You see, my character’s been growing and changing as long as my physical body has because God’s been working on me. Before God formed me in my mother’s womb, He knew the qualities He would place within me, the weaknesses as well as the strengths. When I was born, He began to use all the circumstances of my life that He had planned out to develop me as a person into the precious creation He had in mind since before time began.
Yet when I look back, I usually notice my imperfections first. Maybe you do too. It’s easy to look back and see the things I’ve done wrong and the ways I’ve failed. It’s super-duper-easy, as my kids would say, to be aware of my struggles and the things I’m still working on. Rarely do I consider the ways in which I’ve grown.
For example, I still struggle with patience at times. Yet I’m quite certain that the amount of patience I now have as the mother of 5, even though I’m imperfect, is more than the amount of patience I had before I had children. I’m also 100% sure that even though I sometimes struggle with being critical, I’m more far more encouraging now than I used to be. When I think about it, I can see how far I’ve come in several areas.
I’m sure you can see the same. Maybe you don’t trust God as fully as you would like to, but you’ve come a long way since the day you first realized you needed to trust Him more. Or maybe you get frustrated for no good reason sometimes (don’t we all?), but these incidents are fewer and farther between than they were several years ago.
I know it’s far easier to focus on our imperfections rather than on how far we’ve come. Satan loves it when we do that. Why? Because when we focus on our imperfections, our eyes are on ourselves. But when we look back at what God has done in our lives—when we consider the countless times God has helped us and realize how far He has brought us—we’re filled with love and gratitude.
True, we need to acknowledge where we fall short. But we must not do so to the exclusion of remembering the progress we have made because of God’s help, and the constant loving Presence He has been in our lives, despite the fact that we weren’t perfect.
In what area have you come far, mom? In what way are you closer to holiness now than you were some time ago? Don’t get caught up in saying, “Oh, I still have so far to go.” Maybe you do. I know I do in some areas, and I’m not suggesting either one of us excuse our sins. But let’s not forget to celebrate what God has done for us in bringing us this far. Let’s celebrate the works of the Lord and His goodness toward us.
What works of the Lord in your life do you need to celebrate today?
Psalm 66:5—Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man’s behalf!
1 Samuel 7:12—Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far has the LORD helped us.”