Introduction

WELCOME TO THE BATTLE OF YOUR LIFE

It was 5:30 a.m., and my alarm was going off.

“Mama? Mama? Maaaaaammmmaaaaaa! Can you hear me? Are you sleeping?” I opened one eye and tried to focus. It was early, even for my brown-eyed alarm clock. “Sweetheart, why are you awake?” I asked quietly. “Are you okay?”

“Mom,” my daughter continued, “the tooth fairy didn’t come! I put my tooth right where you said she would find it, but she never came!”

Great. It wasn’t even light outside, and I’d had my first failure of the day.

Zero-dark-thirty, and I’d already let someone down.

SUPERNATURAL STRENGTH NEEDED

I wasn’t unfamiliar with this feeling —it was a weird mixture of worrying I’d never get it right and simultaneously not caring if I ever did. I had experienced similar emotions just five hours earlier, when one of my teens —who has all the youthful energy that comes from not being truly responsible for another human being —plopped down next to me on the bed and started talking. Everything was going great . . . until I dozed off in the middle of our conversation. A disheartened “Never mind, Mom” was the last thing I heard that night as I watched my fifteen-year-old shuffle out of the room.

I tried to make excuses for my sudden onset of narcolepsy, explaining that the baby hadn’t slept through the night for the past few days, but my words rang hollow to the teenager who had finally decided I was cool enough to engage in late-night conversations —except for the fact that I didn’t have any “late night” left in me. Why can’t I be cool at 7:30 instead of 11:30?

I took a deep breath and looked around the room. I knew there was something —something —I needed to remember before I went to bed. After a few minutes, I gave up. My head hit the pillow, where I lay, without sleeping, recounting all the things that were still left on my to-do list from earlier that day. At some point, the list became a lullaby, and I fell asleep.

Now, my six-year-old alarm clock was bringing it all back. That’s it —I was supposed to be the tooth fairy last night! I knew there was something I was forgetting. On top of my usual roles of wife, lover, mother, cook, chauffeur, teacher, judge, counselor, nurse, birthday party coordinator, and chief laundress, I was also a tooth fairy (part time, of course).

“I’m sorry, sugar,” I said to my disappointed child. “Tooth fairies sometimes get lost. Our house is hard to find if you don’t have GPS.”

My daughter looked confused. “But the tooth fairy doesn’t need GPS!” she wailed. “She’s a fairy!”

#momfail

Have you ever seen that hashtag reflected in the eyes of your children? Have you ever looked into the faces of the people who call you Mom and wondered what in the world you got yourself into? Do you ever feel weak and unqualified for the position that is often referred to as “a sacred calling”? Have you ever wished you could transport yourself and your kids back to a simpler time —a time when schools taught math and reading, there was no such thing as the Internet, and churches taught the truth?

I have. I admit that most of the time I feel like I’m in over my head. Maybe you feel that way too. Maybe, like me, you’re surrounded by fifteen tons of cold, wrinkled laundry, and you know you need to go to the grocery store, but frankly you just don’t care if your tribe eats tonight or not. (Why do they want dinner every. single. night?)

If you’re like me, you’ve been reading the headlines and watching the rapid-fire changes that are taking place in our culture with a fair degree of frustration and fear. Let’s face it: moms today are being asked to deal with more than just the basics of motherhood, like packing lunches and making runs to soccer practice; we’re grappling with questions that previous generations never even saw coming. Social and spiritual land mines are everywhere. We’re constantly assaulted by questions about everything from gender identity to the safety of vaccines. Even the role of government in our parenting decisions is more intrusive than in previous generations.

Today’s mothers need a special kind of strength. Yes, we need to be physically strong, but we also need strength of conviction and spiritual fortitude. Today’s moms need to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. We dare not rely on human strength for the current battles we’re facing in culture.

I’ve never met a mom who didn’t want to raise strong, healthy kids, but there’s a caveat: we can’t give our kids what we don’t have ourselves. Our children need us to stand up in a culture that is literally shouting, “Stand down!” The schools will tell you that they know better than you do. Don’t believe them. The media will tell you that truth is whatever anyone wants it to be and that the role of parents isn’t that important. Don’t buy it.

Voices from your past might whisper, “You’re not ready for this.” Don’t listen. You can do this! You —the mom in the midst of it all —have been set apart for a job that only you can do: to train your children to hear God’s voice and to walk in the truth no matter where our culture is heading.

You might be tempted to shrink back from the challenge or let someone you think is smarter or stronger than you take over. But I want to encourage you —for the sake of your children —to engage in the battle. It’s no accident that you’re here right now. This is a special generation of mothers who have been called to shepherd a special generation of children.

We have found ourselves in the middle of an epic battle, and if we’re going to prevail, we’ll need . . .

• to be strong in the Lord,
• to know who we are in Christ, and
• to impart that strength to our kids.

In other words, we need to become MomStrong!

YOUR MISSION, SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT —AND YOU MUST!

If you’re like me, you might be starting to think you’re in over your head when it comes to being the kind of mom God has called you to be . . . and that’s okay, because you are. We all are, and that’s by design. I believe God knew what He was doing when He decided to give inexperienced young women the responsibility of raising children. In fact, I think God must smile when He sees a mother with her child, teaching and training, loving and correcting, sometimes failing and sometimes getting it right. He understands mothers. After all, He is a Father who has watched His own kids struggle and succeed. He knows firsthand the soul-altering love of a parent. And like mothers, God is always at work to shift and shape, clarify and correct the hearts of His children.

Make no mistake: motherhood is tough, and it’s not for the faint of heart. In my twenty-six years of parenting our seven children, I’ve learned how weak I can be and how strong God is. I’ve come to believe that God wants to use my role as a mother to give me a glimpse into His Father-heart for all His children. After all, He knows I’m going to need it for the mission I’m on with my own kids.

And yes, whether you’re aware of it or not, if you’re a mom, you do have a mission —to raise the next generation of teachers, doctors, judges, police officers, grocery store clerks, attorneys, and nurses. Truly, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. But wait —there’s more. You are also raising the next generation of parents! Look around. It doesn’t take long for one generation to hand the baton to the next. And it’s up to you, mom, to make sure that when the time comes, your children are strong enough in the Lord to accept the challenge themselves.

What a high calling motherhood is! Our culture may have reduced it to little more than a stopover on the way to something else, but the truth is that motherhood is sacred. You, mom, are shaping the future, one little heart at a time. Everything else pales in comparison.

If you aren’t sure where to get the strength you’ll need for the journey, keep reading, because this beautifully broken mother of seven would like to give you a gentle hug and a high five as she points you to the true wellspring of life and strength: Jesus.

By the way, it’s okay if you’re reading this and you don’t feel strong. None of us start out strong. The good news is that God doesn’t require strength for the journey; He offers it. He wants to make us strong, but we have to truly want His strength in order to find it. How do we receive it? By acknowledging our own weakness.

It may feel a little frightening at first, this admission of weakness. But take it from someone who has been there: coming to terms with weakness is liberating. When we finally admit we can’t do it on our own and look to Jesus, we’re about to be set free. Free from the past. Free from the tyranny of other people’s expectations. Free from worry. Free to love. Free to grow. Free to move with confidence into the future. Exchanging our past for a future in Christ and claiming His strength is where becoming MomStrong begins. In Christ, you are more than a conqueror. You are strong, safe, sealed, and secure. You are a channel of the love and life of God for your children.

So where do we start? How can we stand up and be strong in a culture that marginalizes mothers and puts children at risk by its very definition of family? We go back to the beginning.

God has already given us the blueprint for becoming MomStrong, and that blueprint is found in the Bible. He has entrusted us with bringing up the next generation, and He says that His strength is made perfect in weakness.

So if you’re feeling weak today, get ready to find new strength. Get ready to see His heart for you in a new way. It doesn’t matter where you are starting. Your inexperience makes you the perfect candidate to receive direction from the One who knows your kids better than you do. Your past doesn’t need to define your future. God is in the business of redemption! He makes things new. Strength comes from Him.

By God’s grace, we can be strong enough to show the next generation that we serve a mighty God. So join me on the journey, won’t you? Let’s become MomStrong together!

Fall 2017