To the Mom Who Feels Distracted From the Things that Truly Matter

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You long to live a life focused on the things that truly matter.

…but you are consumed with many responsibilities and daily tasks. You can’t quite seem to get there. Or perhaps you have a health condition that is holding you back, or you find yourself in the midst of highly stressful circumstances.

You feel that in order to live a meaningful life, you must first break away from busyness, recover your health, and survive through to a time when your kids aren’t quite so needy and you’re getting more sleep.

But what if the things that truly matter can be lived right in the middle of your chaos, pain, and fatigue?

Perhaps that which really matters is not summed up by the number of family nights you planned at all.

(I’m certainly not against slowing down your life to savor the good gifts God has given you. I think that’s worth doing. In fact, I’ve created a free eGuide to get you started).

However, when we allow culture to tell us what does and doesn’t matter in this world, we will end up woefully discouraged. It turns out, this is not about having a “perfectly put together life” at all. Rather, what actually matters is to live a life steeped in God’s love each day.

This is what matters:

“…‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Matthew 22:34-39

When we live out love, each of our small moments will ring into eternity. This eternal reality is exponentially more important than any worldly gain.

This means…

• we cook dinner because God has entrusted us with the task of caring for our families. We do this work in service to Him because we love Him and because His love flows through us.
• we share the truth of the gospel with those in our lives who do not know Jesus because we love them too much to keep silent!
• we choose to faithfully persevere in the face of illness, pain and difficult trails. We trust God in the midst of the hardest moment and exercise genuine faith in what is to come. When we do this, we know He will reward us!
• we shuttle our kids’ friends around because we love them as an outflow of God’s love in us, and because we’re being faithful to what we believe God has for us in this season.
• we rock that restless baby through the night because God’s redemptive plan is at work in the sacrifice of our mothering. We serve Him faithfully as an act of worship, and we learn what it means to lean into His grace.
• we meet the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ without hesitation because we see and experience how dearly loved they are by God.

You see, it’s not so much about what we “can’t” do with our lives (because we’re injured or sick or because we’re busy at work or we have multiple little children at home). It’s about being faithful right where we are, today, in this present season.

It’s about doing everything in love.

John 14:23 says,

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching…

This is the life to which God is calling us today, right in the midst of all the moving pieces. God is saying, “If you love me, you will obey my commands. And what do I command? Love me.” (paraphrased)

We have the privilege of living out this glorious love/obedience cycle! Even as you get up from reading this post, you have the opportunity to go forward and complete your next task in love (and obedience) to God.

But to do this, we must first be rooted and established in love, grasping, by the power of God’s Spirit in us, how wide, long, high and deep is the love of Christ, and how completely it surpasses knowledge. (Ephesians 3:16-19)

You must receive the truth of God’s love for you!

As we learn to function out of the well of God’s love for us and walk through our days in faith, obedience to God, and heavenly-minded love for others, we will naturally make wise choices about how to use our minutes and dollars.

From this overflow of love, we will gladly lay down our self-serving wills, take up our crosses, and follow Jesus daily.

Here’s the point…

This truth will empower you to live a life focused on the things that truly matter before you ever make a single change to your schedule, before your suffering and uncertainty and stress have passed, and before you learn a single other routine to help you live more effectively.

Stop wiling away your days in discontentment and defeat. Start finding God in the midst of the stuff of your life.

How to Focus on What Truly Matters Right Now:

• Receive God’s love for you
• Out of love, obey Him
• What is He asking of you? To love Him! And to love one another.
• Any and all activities of our day can and should be motivated by this overflow of love.
• When we persevere in trials, we glorify God through our faith in what is to come (heaven).
• In each of these ways (love, obedience and faith), we participate in the Eternal.

What truly matters is not the amount of vacations our families took, not the quantity of kids’ sports we coached, nor the number of books we read to our children. These things are only as important as the serve to glorify God and advance His Kingdom.

What truly matters is God’s love at work in us and through us.

How are you learning to live what truly matters right in the midst of your actually life?

*Guess what?! My new 90 Day Devotional is now available for pre-order! Get it here: Heavenly Minded Mom: Embrace What Matters Most

 

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