I Want to be a Gold Medal Mom

Athletes have stars in their eyes. Their focus is to become champions. They see themselves standing on the podium, hand over heart, swelling with pride as the medal is draped and the crowd erupts in applause.

 

But the road to that point is long. Denial. Pain. Begging and borrowing to stay in training. Explaining to friends and relatives when asked, “Just what do you do again?”

The good ones keep up the fight no matter what obstacles they face along the way. They ignore setbacks. They keep their eye on the prize and keep pressing forward against the wind, the tide, or anything else that stands between them and their goal.

I’m not an athlete, I am only a mom.

No one really expects that I will do very much or get anywhere. I am just here, in my home, with my children every day. To outsiders it seems as though I have given up and given in. But God knows the truth.

To Him, each of these children are priceless. They are more precious than gold, more to be desired than a million medals. They are His creation, people He died for.

Yes, I could really, really give in. I could drag myself out of bed every morning and decide to just slide through the day; no plans, no goals, not caring really how things turn out. Life would be enough; I could allow it to drag my whole family around and we could spend our time thrashing about between disasters.

But this is not what God has called me to.

His ideas are much higher, far beyond what I can even envision. His ways are so much greater, filled with hope and promise.

Instead of a reactionary lifestyle, His plan is full of hope and purpose. He sees our home on the attack; grasping the problems of life and overcoming.

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

Romans 5:17, emphasis mine

I don’t want to be an O.K. mom.

I don’t want to look back on my maternal years and say, “Well, I gave it half of what I’ve got!”

Anything worth doing is worth doing right. Not perfection, just 100% effort, relying on God to supply where I am weak.

If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 4:11

That’s why I pray, I study, and I plan. My days are more than just tick marks on a chalk board; they are movements in a great opus. Each one matters, each one is a stroke on the canvas of a large masterpiece.

I run, I strive, and I conquer by God’s grace. It doesn’t matter how hard I have to work, it is all worth it to me.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

1 Corinthians 9:24

My prize will not come to me on this earth, it will only be given when I finally pass my baton on to the next generation. Then I will see the face of my Father, and He will give me the words I have been longing to hear.

His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

Matthew 25:21