Am I equipped to be a mother?
Do I have what it takes?
Will I repeat the same mistakes my mother made?
What if I mess up my child?
I don’t think I can do this!
These are just a few of the fears and doubts that face mothers on a regular basis. The love we have for our children is fierce, and the responsibility is immense. The sweetest of women can turn into a mama bear when someone threatens to harm her child. But we so often doubt that we are doing enough.
The truth is we are not enough. We do not have what it takes. We will fail our children at times. We cannot fulfill the loving responsibilities of a mother without God’s equipping love!
God’s Love Shapes Our Identity
When we identify with Jesus Christ through faith in his death and resurrection, we gain a supernatural identity as a child of God – fully loved, fully accepted and fully forgiven by him. With this new identity, we are equipped to love with the same perfect love that Jesus extended to us. In 1 John 4:19, we read, we love because He first loved us. In as much as we understand his love for us, we are able to love our children. The more we grasp the impact of the Gospel and God’s love in our daily lives, the better able we are to give the perfect, true and sacrificial love of God to our children. In fact, there is such a connection between God’s love and our love for others that one cannot fully exist without the other. 1 John 4:11-12 says, Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. His love equips us to love our children. Therefore, we need to receive his love before we can give it. We must cast off all other forms of identity that seek to define us because they are false identities. These false identities include appearance, athletics, recognition, education, financial gain or any number of things. If our identity is rooted in anything other than the saving work of Christ, we will transfer that false identity to our children. God’s love is sufficient for you and sufficient for your children.
God’s Love is The Perfect Model of Love
If you are feeling inadequate and lacking in wisdom, prayerfully read through 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Dissect each characteristic of love and ask yourself the following questions:
- How has God shown His love to me through each characteristic?
- How can I better model each characteristic to the next generation?
- Have I failed, and do I need to seek forgiveness from God and my children?
- How can I teach my children to develop this love characteristic?
Through God’s perfect love, you are equipped to love your children, so love your children like your Heavenly Father has loved you!
Read more about our Identity in Christ.
