Emphasis On Moms     

 You are a Mom ~   You are a Wife ~   You are a Lady ~

       Don't run from who you are ~ embrace it!

Everybody Makes Mistakes ~ Selena Mack

Everybody makes mistakes.  I don’t know how you respond to your own errors, but many people have extreme responses.  I find myself far more forgiving when someone else makes a mistake than when I do.  When my husband spills a glass of orange juice, we just clean it up.  If I spill a glass of juice, my reaction toward myself would make you think that the juice was the most important liquid in the universe and the health of Ugandan orphans depended on that juice.  “I can’t believe I did that.  That was so stupid.  I knew better than to set that on an uneven surface.  What on earth was I thinking?”  It seems a little extreme outside of the moment.  However, I hear a lot of people respond to their mistakes in that way. 

      I spoke with one friend about this and she gave me an interesting perspective.  She told me to imagine that my niece did the same thing, and to speak those things as though I was yelling at her.   Not surprising, I could not even pretend to say those same things to a niece who was not in the room because of how cruel it would have sounded.  I know that I do not even like seeing children spoken to harshly in movies, yet I still speak to myself in such a spiteful manner.

      How much it must break God’s heart to hear what I have to say about His precious daughter.  Psalm 139 reminds me that nothing is hidden from God. 

      “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.  You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.  You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.  Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.”. (Psalm139: 1-4, NIV)

I just had my first child this year.  I handle him with gentle hands and I speak delicate words of affirmation and adoration to him.  I realize that there will come a day when he frustrates me and my patience may run thin, but I will strive to correct him without cutting him down.  This experience has given me a fresh perspective on how God must react when I disparage myself for such menial errors. 

      God loves you more profoundly than you can ever imagine.  I believe the love of a parent for a child is the most intense exhibition of love that we can envision here on earth.  God loves you more deeply than any earthly parent can love a child.  He is the one that created every aspect of you.

      “For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:13-16, NIV)

God was with you before your mother even knew she was carrying you. He created every part of you.  Excessive criticizing of yourself is cutting down God’s special design in you.  I encourage you to reevaluate your self-talk.  Is it encouraging your growth and development or is it disparaging God’s child? 

      Next time you find yourself in a situation to be angry at yourself, stop, take a breath, forgive yourself, and picture in your mind’s eye the beautiful daughter of God that you are.  It is appropriate to correct your mistake, and even depending on the circumstances, evaluate how things should have been done differently.  However, to call yourself stupid, a failure, a waste or any other extreme term is not being true to your identity in Christ.  You are a beautiful, intelligent, forgiven daughter of the King.  Speak to yourself with the respect and dignity you rightly deserve as God’s creation.