We All Scream for Ice Cream
It feels like it was just yesterday that I set up the most adorable sand sensory bins for my kids. It was ice cream themed, with pom pom cherries and cute pastel cups. We even dyed our own rainbow colored rice for sprinkles. It was one of those amazing mom moments that felt like a big win… and the smiles on my children’s four joyful faces reflected the same sentiment. It truly was a beautiful moment…
But today? Oh, today those sensory bins are more like we all scream for ice cream. I could have laid down and made a beautiful sand and rainbow rice snow angel on my living room floor, but instead I was frozen staring at the colorful mess my children had made, too focused on keeping that scream on the inside. To make matters worse, my toddler decided to pour water all over, making it quite the unsalvageable muddled mess.
Messes in life can happen in a matter of minutes, or even seconds if your children also have that particular skill set. Sometimes they come in the form of everyday moments of motherhood, and other times as distractions pulling us away from our calling. Whether it is just life moments, those fun grown-up responsibilities, or even spiritual warfare, we have a choice to make. How will we respond?
React or Greet?
I remember reading once that we can choose to start our days as moms either greeting or reacting to our children. Even though my efforts to wake up earlier have just resulted in them waking up even earlier, having even just a few short moments before my children wake up makes all the difference. I have a moment to fill my cup with the Lord, get ready, and greet my children. I’m also in a season where this is easier to do so. When I would nurse one of my babies throughout the night, I was often waking when they were waking out of sheer survival. Different seasons invite different opportunities, and switching to a morning person has been more restful than I ever realized, mostly because I can start with welcoming the day and my children after I have time to dwell in that quiet space with Jesus.
We also have so many opportunities and moments throughout our days where we can decide to either react to a situation, or greet that situation with a predetermined choice to rule over it. Do I meet every challenge with so much composure all the time? Umm… no… We are all human, and sometimes that means using our mom fails as teaching experiences to talk about how we can handle hard moments a bit better. We all need grace and mercy.
But let’s take a moment to dig a little deeper. How can we resolve to respond in a biblical way in our words and actions? What do we need as moms to not crawl into bed with mom guilt at the end of the day?
Responding from Rest
We all know that those ice scream moments happen most when we are physically tired. Obviously, getting physical rest is important. However, let’s be real for a minute. We are moms. We are up when kids are sick, when they have a nightmare, and when they climb into bed in the middle of the night and we wake up being kicked in the face. There are no days off and physical rest is far from a guarantee in this season of life. So how on God’s good Earth are we supposed to live from rest?
I struggled with this for years.
Stop striving.
Live from rest.
As a working mom, as a stay-at-home mom, as a single mom… the message was the same despite the circumstances. Rest. Finally, I asked the Lord what He meant. The answer surprised me. It wasn’t about physical rest at all, but about my heart posture. It was about my spiritual health.
Scripture makes it clear that our heart posture is what God looks at and that what we do flows from our heart.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
– Proverbs 4:23 (NKJV)“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
– Psalm 51:10 (NKJV)But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or his stature because I have rejected him. Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.”
– 1 Samuel 16:7 (CSB)Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
– Psalm 139:23-24 (NKJV)
I have come to learn that having a heart posture of rest is all about the One we find rest in. When we live from a place of true relationship with Jesus, as companions along the journey moment by moment, day by day, we know who we walk with and whose we are as we walk. We don’t walk this life alone, but with the one that holds our lives. Do we still face hardships? Yes, we are assured we will. The promise is that we don’t face them alone, and that makes all the difference. We know the one who is sovereign over it all. The one who doesn’t promise to remove the struggle but chooses to meet us in the storms of life, be present with us, pull us out from the waves and bring us to a place above the turmoil. He chooses to suffer with us in this fallen world, just as He chose to suffer for us. And He promises to one day remove all suffering when He reigns as King.
(If you are wondering why He doesn’t do that now, Adam and Eve are the ones who gave the authority God gave them to the devil himself… Talk about a mankind fail and the reason we need Jesus… but back to the fact we have Jesus.)
Because we have Jesus, we can walk out our everyday lives knowing we aren’t alone. We get to raise our kids with their Creator, and He promises to help us. We don’t have to feel like we aren’t doing enough, but we can live knowing we are enough. When we give Him our hearts, we can make a daily decision to live from rest.
To surrender.
To trust.
To know the One who is in control and recognize that we are not.
And when we do that, we are filled with the One who gives us strength even after the sleepless nights. Then, we have the capacity to face those ice scream moments with more grace, mercy, and guidance that our children need, all because we aren’t carrying what was never ours to carry.
When you have your own messy mom moment, I want to encourage you to take some time with the Lord, dig a little deeper, and let Him realign your heart to His. You are enough. You do enough. Respond to the invitation to walk out motherhood with Jesus. That decision will change how you respond to everything else.
Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’
– Isaiah 41:10 (NKJV)“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
– Romans 8:28 (NKJV)“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
– Revelation 21:4 (NKJV)
