The Art of Life
Photobucket I'm so glad you're here! "The Art of Life" is where I share my journey as an artist & Momma. It's a place where I hope to encourage other women that they are artists too. In this small little space I seek to share, document, and be reminded of God's wonderful grace, all around us. ....And I would be so happy to have you journey alongside me! So grab a cup of coffee and linger for a while. I hope you leave feeling refreshed. Photobucket

Friday, June 6, 2008

The Mother that I am

"Too Cute Clipboard" Heather Ann Designs found here.

~~5 Minutes for Mom has a wonderful, wonderful post today called "The Mom Who Does it All." It was written by Katie Ebel of Musings of a Mamma of Many (M.o.M) and was just the reminder that I needed today.
~~I absolutely love the part where she writes, "The happiest moment of my life was when I realized I didn’t need to be the mom everyone else expected me to be. I needed to be the mom that came from being myself."
Aaaaaah. Exhale. That's the lesson that I've been trying to learn.
~~None of us are perfect. I know that's true. And I need to rely on God's grace every day to help me grow and improve as a Mom. But at the same time, there's nothing wrong with being me; the Mother that I am right now.
~~Why is it our tendency as women to compare ourselves to everyone else? We think that all the other Moms out there have it all together and we're the only one who struggles with the mountain of laundry or the crumbs on the floor. And another ridiculous thing we tend to do is to combine the strengths of other women into this ideal "Super Mom" that we think we must be. You know how that goes, "If only I could cook like So-and-so, decorate like So-and-so, dress like So-and-so, be as creative as So-and-so.........and the list goes on. Don't we see how silly that is? And yet I'm guilty of those types of thoughts all the time.
~~Katie writes, "Once you can let go of the expectation, you can let go of the stress." And I know that I'm a much better Mom when I'm not stressed out! God knew what He was doing when He paired these children with me as their Mother. If I trust Him He can use me with my particular strengths, weaknesses, and personality to be just what they need.

~~The painting is coming right along. I'm getting so close to being finished! I wanted to wait a bit before posting so that I can give a bigger update. Soon. :)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kasie,
As I was reading the begining of your post, I kept thinking. It's so silly to compare ourselves, because God picked you to be the Mom of these particular kids, And then, of course, that's what you said! Of course, we can never really see the truth behind 'fashion mom' or 'creative mom' or 'decorating diva' mom. Everyone has their crosses to bear and their trials to overcome. Learning that, and remembering that is the challenge of seeing people as God sees them, and not as we see them. So easy to say and so hard to do -- I'm totally not there, but trying every day.
~Jen

Valerie Jones said...

Oh, Kasie....THANK YOU! I needed this post today. I've been struggling this week with being a parent. I fail everyday at being the "perfect" mom. So when I let myself think that way, I put too high of demands on my children. (((HUGS)))

Kate said...

Kasie, I'm so touched with what you wrote about my piece at The Sampler!

Thank you for sharing it with others as it's a work in progress that God is doing in my life as well. I will be honest in saying the other day my husband said "Hey, let's have so-and-so over" and I cringed as I immediately compared my house to hers. Isn't that silly?

It's a blessing to me that something I wrote meant so much to you and I'm glad that you could pass that on to others who need the reminder as well. Maybe I should go tackle my mountain of laundry now.... nah ;-)

Jo Castillo said...

Kasie, when you are taking stock and can see the good and not so good things you do, you are OK. I think some moms just "know" they are perfect and fail that way. From what I see here, you are doing fine. Hugs.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this! Just what I needed today! Glad to know somebody else thinks like me :)