Failure and Proud of It!

November 13, 2008

Failure and Proud of It!

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

As I read the introductory paragraph to chapter 4 of the mommy diaries, the above passage came to mind. As moms we tend to think we can do it all on our own. Many of us are old pros (or so we think) at multi-tasking. We can feed the baby, talk on the phone, unload the dishwasher, cook dinner and kiss the hubby as he walks in the door from work – all at the same time! But when we take the time to look around we realize the baby has been drinking spoiled milk from an old sippy cup, the ingredients needed for dinner are not in the pantry, the dishes in the dishwasher had NOT been cleaned before they were unloaded, the phone is no where to be found (maybe look in the refrigerator), and hubby feels a little dejected – all while multi-tasking. We need HELP!

Now I am not one to think that mothers of preschoolers have the hardest job around. I actually tend to think my job is easy compared to what most people do each day. But I will say that the job of mothering is more difficult than others in the sense that we are on our own most of every day, most days of the week. We don’t have the office staff to back us up when things go wrong in the kitchen or the bathroom or the grocery store or the…you get the picture. We need the help of others to succeed at mothering, just like any other job.

That is why we must not lose the truth found in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. We cannot succeed as mothers unless we rely on God as our source of strength. We were not designed to do this, or any job for that matter, on our own. When we are weak and admit that we cannot do it all, when we fail and cry out to God for help getting through the next day, we are allowing God the opportunity to do and be who He is.  It is at that moment of surrender that we are actually our strongest.  Christ’s power will rest on us in our weakest moments.

If we take this a step further, as Paul does, we can even boast in our short comings as mothers! This may come second nature to most of us. As mentioned above, we tend to try to do it all on our own. We don’t like to admit that we need help. We consider ourselves failures if we can’t do it all and are afraid that others will think us failures. But Paul says, and I paraphrase, “hey, I am a failure and I am proud of it, because it gives Christ a chance to show me and others who He is and what He can do, despite my problems!” I like his attitude, don’t you? A huge weight lifted off my shoulders even as I typed.

So moms, don’t you think it’s about time we stopped pretending we can do it on our own?! We need help! Desperately! And Christ is waiting for the opportunity to show us His power and ability to manage our lives. Why don’t we let Him? Then we’ll actually have a chance of succeeding at this adventure in mothering. “When I am weak, then I am strong.”

 

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