I glance at the clock only to see a blurred number three. It is pitch black and I can hardly wrap my brain around the plea for help. As I attempt to acknowledge which child is climbing in beside me, I hear the dreaded gag followed by streams of last night’s dinner.

NO!… I am awake now.

This scene has played out more times than I can count. The worst things come hurling when you least expect them.

My world of motherhood started with nausea and sleepless nights, followed by more nausea and more sleepless night. Children are a lot of work and demand so much. Yet, fifty-three times, the bible refers to children as a blessing. I didn’t count them all, but a wise scholar took the effort to remind me of God’s heart for families. 

Yet, somehow in the middle of the night, it doesn’t feel like a blessing. Or during a huge diaper blow out when you are already late. Or during the dreaded “pushing”/“ring of fire” stage during labor. Or while enduring the hormonal phase of a teenage daughter.

But over and over again, God connects the word blessing to children.

If children are a blessing from God, why does it feel like such a burden? Because blessing does not remove work. In fact, in the very beginning, Adam and Eve were put in the garden to work. It didn’t come after the fall, but before. God designed us to labor. Noah constructed an ark. Ruth gleaned in the fields. Solomon built the temple. Repeatedly, God gave his anointed a job to get done. 

Your assignment is to raise your blessings.

If mothering is seen as a burden, then that is how it will feel. It is a reflection; like looking in the mirror. What you choose to see is what you get. When seen through the eyes of Jesus, then you will press through the hard times and embrace the beauty in the small things that get you through the middle of the night feedings. Or the redundancy of disciple. Or the potty-training months (or years).

During a challenging season, step back and evaluate how boring life would be without all the interruptions. As Facebook reveals a mother with a dying child, I am reminded of the preciousness of life. During my son’s cancer diagnosis, I had the reassurance that I had poured everything into that boy. I may not have been the “perfect” mom, but my path was littered with intentionality for his life.

The days may be long, but the years are short.

As a mother with three, soon to be four, adulting children, with two more rapidly approaching, I yearn for those early years. If only I could go back and not wish the day away. Each morning held potential, yet my heart yearned to press fast forward. No matter your season, today contains significance. You are shaping and molding the future. Your actions with have a ripple effort for generations to come.

Each season of mothering holds its challenges. Embrace today. Don’t wish for an easier path, but look for purpose in the mundane.

I remember vividly throwing up during each pregnancy, followed by many potty-training failures, and middle of the night requests that seemed to go on forever. (Just to give you hope, rarely do I get woken up in the middle of the night.)

As you continue walking the motherhood journey, look for the blessing. As you raise the blessing, look for God’s heart. As you seek God’s heart, embrace the day with purpose through His presence. You only get one chance to raise these blessings. Being intentional with your minutes, days, weeks, and years will allow you to reap the benefits of your laboring efforts.

Children are a blessing…

…A big, sloppy, messy, loud, obnoxious, full of energy, but loads of love, blessing from above.

“Like arrows in the hand of the warrior, so are children a blessing in one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” Psalms 127:3-5.