Being a mother has been the greatest joy of my life. I’ve loved raising our kids, helping them grow and mature into adults. Now that our eldest daughter and son-in-law have had their first baby (our first grandchild), being a mom has taken on new significance. Our granddaughter is a precious, delightful 5-month-old, and we just can’t get enough of her. It’s such a blessing to become new grandparents and observe her life taking shape.
Witnessing our daughter become a mother has also been a special blessing. It’s amazing to see her fulfill this new role with such passion and commitment. It was just yesterday that I set up my baby’s toys on a blanket in the yard; now when she visits, we set up her baby’s toys on the very same lawn, some 20 plus years later. Time really does seem like an illusion.
When my daughter was born and I became a new mother, my mom’s insight and experience became invaluable to me. Now she’s an active, very capable Great-Grandmother, and we’re so blessed to have her nearby. We’ve been able to spend special moments together, the four of us: Mom, me, my daughter and granddaughter, and I’m grateful for the blessing of sharing four generations. These days won’t last forever so I’ve been trying to soak them up while I can.
Being a new grandparent is great because you’re somewhat off the hook from the high demands of parenting. I remember well how the early days after childbirth were utterly exhausting. Long sleepless nights of nursing, endless diaper changes, hours of baby crying and hardly ever a moment to myself. The saying, “the days are long, but the years are short” was good for perspective but didn’t always help back then; now in hindsight I understand how true this is.
Raising infants is physically difficult, but things got toughest for me emotionally once our kids were a bit older. I continually ran out of patience and felt torn between loving my children vs needing a break. My anger often got the best of me, but I knew that was not how God would want me to behave. So, I worked hard to control it but still messed up, then wrestled with the ensuing guilt. I felt stuck: I wanted so badly to be better but kept falling short. This was discouraging and caused me to question my ability as a mother, which compromised my confidence and peace. It was painful to recognize and seemed impossible to rectify. Thankfully I found relief in God’s word.
In Romans 7:18-19 the apostle Paul states, For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. I love how relatable this is; Paul describes just what I thought about feeling stuck. He freely admits his weakness and futility to overcome his sin by himself. He confesses that despite his best efforts to be good, he still fails. In vs. 22-23, Paul describes himself as “captive to the law of sin” at work within him, despite how he delights in the law of God. He continues in verses 24-25, Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
I appreciate the Bible commentary from David Guzik of Enduring Word: “The entire tone of the statement shows that Paul is desperate for deliverance. He is overwhelmed with a sense of his own powerlessness and sinfulness. We must come to the same place of desperation to find victory.” Guzik points out that the law teaches us what to do but we still can’t do it because what we need is not a teacher, we need a savior. “Paul doesn’t pretend that looking to Jesus takes away the struggle – Jesus works through us, not instead of us in the battle against sin. The message of the gospel is that there is victory over sin, hate, death, and all evil as we surrender our lives to Jesus and let Him live out victory through us.”
Christians have been liberated from the penalty of sin because it has been paid in full by Christ. But we continue to live in the presence of sin, which causes this inner conflict of struggling to do what we know is right, even after we accept Christ as our Savior. We are being made new and set free from the power of sin by the power of the Holy Spirit. As we yield to the Lord, we begin to want the things He wants, and we learn to choose holiness. Our sanctification is ongoing.
Jesus invites us to depend on Him every day in the Lord’s Prayer: Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:11). We can depend on him for help, strength, and a way out of temptation. He supplies grace every day, not just at conversion. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14).
Heavenly Father, thank you for the great comfort of Your Word, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the sufficiency of Your grace. Amen.
But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me (2 Corinthians 12:9).
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