Busy Moms Need to Keep Growing Spiritually

Motherhood is one of life's greatest joys, but it's also a demanding and exhausting job. It's easy to become overwhelmed by all the tasks you face as a mom - especially if your children are young. God wants you to serve your family and will honor your hard work, but He's concerned with far more than whether you keep a clean house or juggle a complicated carpool schedule well.

Ultimately, the most important thing you can do as a mom is to pursue your own spiritual growth. If you pursue God with a passion, He'll transform you into the kind of mom He wants you to be. And your family will benefit, too.

Here are some ways you can pursue spiritual growth in the midst of a mother's hectic life:

• Realize that your goal isn't to be a Supermom who efficiently checks off items from a to-do list. Instead, you should strive to become a person who loves God and others more and more each day. Everything that's important in life relates to this goal. Build your priorities around it when you decide how to spend your time and energy.

• Pray for grace each day so you can receive the fullness of God's strength to handle every situation you encounter. Trust God to lead you through each day. Remember to look up to Him rather than down at your circumstances.

• Consider where you're holding out the cup of your soul, expecting it to be filled. Are you hoping that your husband or children will fulfill you? Do you think fulfillment will come from keeping a beautiful home or performing a certain job? Realize that the only true source of fulfillment is God. Be sure that you're holding your cup out only to Him so you won't be disappointed or waste time and effort.

• Think about your passions. What excites you, and why? What did you enjoying doing when you were a child? What do you enjoy doing now, or wish you had more time to do? How would you like to contribute to the world, using your unique talents? Once you've discovered your passions, ask God to give you opportunities to pursue them. Then commit to allocating time and energy on a regular basis to following your passions. Be creative - there's always some time for you to pursue a passion. For example, if you love animals, you might figure out a way to volunteer at an animal shelter while your children are in school, or help neighbors by walking their dogs during the day as you and your children take a walk. If you love architecture, you could take a drafting class on a weeknight while your husband is home, then work on blueprints in your spare time.

• Pursue holiness. Make the time to pray, read your Bible, and connect with other godly people regularly. Ask God to give you a hunger and a thirst for the holiness He wants you to have. Confess the things in your life that are blocking your intimacy with God - such as bad habits or impure thoughts - and ask Him to help you get rid of them. When you're free, you can pursue God with greater abandon.

• Make some time to get away by yourself for some silence and solitude on a regular basis, even if you can only do so for short breaks.

• Feed your mind some new ideas. Read books and talk with others regularly, seeking to learn something new. Challenge yourself to think. Exercise your body, too, and eat nutritiously. Your mind, body, and spirit are interconnected.

• Don't worry about trying to live up to other people's expectations. Strive instead to please God.

• Participate in some close friendships with other godly women.
  

Adapted from Tender Mercy for a Mother's Soul, copyright 2001 by Angela Thomas Guffey. A Focus on the Family book published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Ill., www.tyndale.com, 1-800-323-9400.

Angela Thomas Guffey and her husband Paul have four children. She leads Bible studies and speaks at women's retreats and conferences.

Are you growing spiritually in the midst of motherhood's demands, or has your spiritual growth taken a back seat to your to-do list? How do you try to make time to pursue holiness? Do you take time out on a regular basis to do something you're passionate about? Visit Crosswalk's forums to discuss this topic by clicking on the link below.