As a busy mom of four children, I’d say I have a less than healthy relationship with food. I often spend all morning feeding everyone but myself. They all eat at different rates, and then there are always other time sensitive things which need to be multi-tasked in the morning routine. So, between feeding children intermittently, while also washing dishes, and doing laundry, and getting kids on the bus and all the things a mom has to do each morning, it is often approaching noon when I realize I hardly ate a thing.
But this here, really isn’t even about food. I find this to be true in my spiritual life as well, stuggling with a spiritual hunger. There is a shocking parallel. Pray with the kids, teach the kids, pray for or with my friends and family and their needs, etc, etc. I encourage everyone else around me to have a healthy spiritual life and relationship with God, and forget to feed myself.
Last week, I discussed moms growing weary, and the reason behind that is not necessarily in doing all the things; it is in the one thing we’re not doing. Moms, we have got to remember to feed ourselves! We grow weary because in doing all the things, opening up our Bibles, or finding quiet time with Jesus just ends up on the end of a long list of chores we never get to.
So easily we can begin to lose ourselves; our faith. At the beck and call to our children’s every need, want, desire; soccer practice, swim lessons, basketball camps, birthday parties, meals, never ending laundry and dishes, and play (when is there time for that?), these tiny humans we love, so quickly turn to idols in our lives. If we’re not careful, we lose sight of God.
Last week was such a moment, and a small group of women from my church were meeting for some worship and fellowship that Friday. I can’t even begin to tell you just how much I did not want to go. I love these women to pieces, but I was lost in a sea of anxiety over my never ending to-do lists, and feeling really lost. Thanks to their encouragement, and my husband’s insistence, I went.
And God met me there. See, having the simple freedom of worship without the constant distraction of four children to my right, is such a great blessing! And during this time, while I was feeling so incredibly exhausted and stressed and physically pained by the weight of adulting, God showed me a verse.
It may seem irrelevant to most, but I began to blubber like a baby. So many times when I feel so completely overwhelmed that I feel broken in some way, I feel so alone. The devil tries to make me feel like God doesn’t care. “That’s why He doesn’t answer you. That’s why He’s not helping you through this. This isn’t important to him.”
Do you ever feel this way? Let down and left alone to fend for yourself? It is not the truth! He is there! He loves you! And even in your pain and sorrow, He knows that you love Him too. Don’t project your own busy life onto Him. He is not the one putting you off. Meet with him, feed yourself, encourage your own relationship with God the way you encourage others, because He loves you!