Embracing Motherhood

Most everyone who enters the realm of parenthood experiences the raw reality and hard transition of going from an independent, self-sufficient adult to suddenly having a small human who relies on you 24/7. Being able to do what I want, when I want to suddenly now being hindered at my ability to go certain places, or even the time it might take for me to get to those places, meant that though motherhood came quite naturally to me in some ways, in other ways it took some getting use to.

A friend once asked me "When were you able to fully accept your role as a mother?"
I could actually tell you the exact time and date that it happened. It was a moment of realization I will never forget. My firstborn son was 18mo old at that time. Having taken a course on Childhood Developement before we were married, my husband and I had decided that we would not spank our children. However, when my little guy became mobile we fell into the societal norm of the common "hand slap" to try to "teach" him not to touch things. Only my son is so persisitant that this did not "work" for him. So what do you do? keep slapping him? slap harder? My heart broke that we were even doing this to him and I felt a strong conviction to stop. But then we were left with "Well, but then what DO we do?" How do we teach him not to touch things?" We had no other tools in our parenting belt and we were feeling rather flustered in our skills.

Then one evening I found GentleChristianMothers. I clicked on the Articles and Resources and began reading and reading and reading. I could not get enough of it. I read so many articles that night and into the next several days that I couldn't tell you anymore which one it was exactly that made the most impact. But as I was reading one of the articles a mom was sharing how "discipline" can mean "to teach, to train, or to instruct" and how we can do this all the time! She shared how telling her kids that "cars are dangerous and can smash you just like that leaf in the road" was a form of discipline. Suddenly I had the most amazing "Ah ha!" moment. THIS is what motherhood is all about. THIS is what I am home with my kids for. To discipline them, to take *every one* of life's moments and use it to teach them about something. This was the moment of embrace for me. It was the moment I was suddenly able not to care what all my single friends were off doing. I had vision. I had a purpose for this season of life and I was excited about it!

4 years and two more kids later I can tell you that this vision has not changed. In fact it has grown. I have been delighted over and over to watch the fruit of my labor. My kids are not prefect. My kids are like any other young children in that they get tired or hungry and melt down and have fits and all the other wonderful things that come with having immature little people in your life. But I have stepped outside the mindset of viewing discipline as "punishment." Instead, Discipline is what I do 24/7  365.

I wouldn't have it any other way.