Our Mama Fears and His Marvelous Faithfulness

{For my faithful readers: I co-lead an (in)couragers community group called (in)motherhood. This session our theme is "Fearless Motherhood" each Monday you are going to find a post here on that theme. The post is for all of us, but will have some specific content for the members of the (in)motherhood group. You are welcome and more than invited to read and grow along with us as we delve into this topic.}

There are about a million reasons to be afraid in life. Motherhood takes those million reasons and doubles them with every child. From the moment that the pink lines appear we wonder and worry and plan and prepare only to find that motherhood is more than we ever expected.

It is scarier.
It is sweeter.

Motherhood is all consuming and sometimes our fears can consume us in it's midst. 

We live in a scary world, but God calls us to be brave and whole women and mamas.
As mamas we worry about the small details and the grand scheme all at once and that can get exhausting. I know.

Is my baby getting enough to eat? How is my milk supply? How can I know?

Will my baby suffocate on the bumper? Why did I put a bumper in there?

Will she choke on the rice cereal? Is he allergic to wheat?

Will my toddler ever sleep through the night? Will they ever be out of diapers?  

Am I disciplining correctly? Enough? Too much? 

 Will I ever feel like myself again? Am I doing it right? Am I doing enough? 

Will my husband and I ever get a night out or just a night without a baby in between us?

What if she falls off of the bed, or down the stairs or through the cracks of life and I can't scoop, soothe and pick up the pieces?

What if...

Does that sound familiar? I know it does for me.

Sometimes we can get downright silly with the things we fear, but often those fears, even the seemingly silly, are serious to our mama hearts. They represent a crossroads of our faith that can either leave us dependent on our own strength or clinging to the cross weak and needy for Christ.

This world is fallen and broken and there is reason enough to fear. God never makes a claim in Scripture that the world isn't a frightening place. In fact His whole plan for redemption hinged on the fact that sin has made the world and our future apart from Christ a very scary thing. He repeats over and again that the world is scary, but He is mighty to save and mighty to rescue us from fear, doubt and a try-so-hard to control it all mindset.

The Old Testament is full of amazing stories and women who chose brave living over fear. Mother Sarah laughed when she was told that she would bare a son in her old age. She set out by Abraham's side and I am sure that the fear and all the unknown dared to overwhelm her at times, but God calls her faithful and calls us to be like her in her courageousness.  

Sarah's courage was not one that she conjured up. No, her courage was something God gave her and did in her when she was weak to believe and obey. His faithfulness buoyed her along and allowed Sarah to cling to Him rather than her own fears about the present and future.

If we want to be fearless mamas we have to start by admitting that we are not in control. Our best efforts to schedule, train and serve our children are only as strong and certain as our trust in God's goodness to us through Christ.  

That is the place that we start. We start the path to fearlessness by admitting our fear and inability to control it all. Fear shrinks back before Christ's faithfulness. He is faithful to meet us in our weakness.

{Take a moment to ponder Psalm 27:1. Write it out on a notecard and put in somewhere that is visible. Ask yourself what you fear? Take a moment to pray and leave those worries and fears at the feet of Jesus and then continually lay them down each time they creep up throughout the day by clinging to Psalm 27:1}