The SECRET to Intentional Motherhood

It’s half past nine, and my kids are breathing deeply when I finally squeeze out of the bed. All three of them are tumbled together in our master bedroom, and it’s a mess of arms and legs, a few draped haphazardly one atop of the other. I twist myself into positions that even a contortionist would appreciate so I can successfully achieve the feat of slinking out of the room without waking a child.

As I collapse onto the office chair to begin composing the next entry in this 31 Days of Mothering series, I feel I have nothing left to give. We’ve discussed some hard stuff in the past few days … namely brokenness and grace. And I feel I’ve poured out and have yet to fill up. So I pray for something, anything … just a quick arrow prayer shot up to the throne. And the answer comes almost immediately, small but clear:

“Tell them to get up and do it again.”

What? What does that mean?

And then the familiar verse from Lamentations echoes in my head … and I get it.

The answer is so clear, it’s astounding in its simplicity. His mercies are new every morning. If you want to be an intentional mom, here’s the secret: You just get up in the morning, and you do it again.

Be faithful to the task. Just be faithful.

As broken moms parenting broken children in the midst of a broken world, we will struggle. There’s grace for the struggle, and that grace transforms our heart, but the hardships will remain nevertheless. That’s just the reality of the fallen world in which we live.

So the answer to intentionality, the secret that enables a mom to pursue an intentional relationship day after day is to simply get up. When you feel you can’t possibly change one more diaper, quell one more argument, face one more fear, banish one more anxious thought, pick up one more toy, teach one more lesson, inspire one more moment of courage, read one more story … When you feel you can’t do it one more day, you go to bed and by HIS grace, you awake to new mercies and the strength to do it again.

You don’t need a ten-step program. You don’t need tools for intentionality. You don’t need tips and charts. You simply need He who extends new mercies each and every morning. You can love again, forgive again, extend mercy again, wipe the tears again, have the hard conversations again, correct again, teach again, discipline again. You can get up and do it again simply because His mercies are new every day.

You and I will never be able to parent perfectly, but God doesn’t call us to be perfect, He just calls us to be faithful. Soak that truth in. Let it seep into the core of your momma heart until it swells and pushes out all of the unmet expectations and the unattainable must-dos and must-bes. Because if you want to be an intentional mother, there is only one thing you must do. Simply get up and do it again.

This is Day 7 in 31 Days of Intentional Mothering. To start reading from Day 1, click here.

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