When I became a stay-at-home mom, I found myself in an identity crisis. If I wasn’t making money in my Communications career, I felt I wasn’t doing anything of value. In my head, I knew mothering my child was valued by God and my husband, but in my heart, I felt undervalued by the culture around me. For years when people would ask me what I did, I would answer by saying what I used to do, as if being a full-time mom wasn’t acceptable. Just to be with my child, and support my family’s emotional and physical needs didn’t feel “good enough.”
“Not good enough” became my biggest barrier to embracing my true identity. I wasn’t good enough because I wasn’t making money. I wasn’t good enough because I quit my career to be a homemaker. I wasn’t a good enough mother because I didn’t have a perfectly clean house with organically grown homemade meals every night. I wasn’t good enough to be in the ministry because of my past sins. There always seemed to be an area that I felt wasn’t good enough!
I finally let that performance mentality go, and have embraced my imperfections in the process. God, my heavenly Father, will give me the grace, through His son Jesus Christ, to walk this thing through. I wont be perfect and that’s okay. He IS perfect for me!
Romans 8:14 says that we are children of God. Nothing can change that fact. Regardless if I make money, have a great career outside of the home, or even many subscribers on this blog, I will always be His daughter.
Once we’ve been adopted into God’s kingdom, we receive His spirit, and begin to change from the inside out. We’re being shaped into His image more each day. But nothing I do will make me more of His daughter! There is a rest when we fully embrace who we are in Christ – our true destinies are to be Co-heirs with Jesus in His Kingdom. How amazing is that?
In American culture, the focus is constantly on the “undone.” There is this an unforgiving pressure to get all your ducks in a row, and it’s exhausting! What a relief it is to let that go, and rest in the undone, not allowing the process to become a burden.
We’re all in process. On this side of heaven, we’ll never be done completely. It’s all good. God is all about the process, and He just wants us to be faithful in the little things that make up a relationship – time with Him in prayer, reading His word and serving humanity in some selfless way. It’s really not that complicated. Here’s to the process, and resting in our identities as Sons and Daughters of God – that will never change!
