It’s been a long day hasn’t it?
Maybe your long day began before mine did. I’m just now cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, but today felt long beginning around 9:00 am this morning.
We were out of milk, which made cereal for breakfast… difficult. The shirt that we really wanted to wear was in the washing machine. The baby is getting his first tooth, and my night (well, our night) was pretty restless. I overslept, and (once again) was that mom to Pre-K drop off… you know the one with the hair still in last night’s pony tail and the last to get there.
Do you ever feel like you’re running behind in everything? Like no matter what time you arrive, you’re three steps behind where you need to be?
I have three kids now, but I was thinking back to my days of having two under the age of two. Those days seemed so long. I rarely felt as though I got to leave my living room except to make food in the kitchen. I couldn’t do anything easily with one baby on my hip (and I always had one baby on my hip) So, I just decided I would wait until nap time to be productive. When nap time came, I was exhausted, and just wanted to sleep myself.
I couldn’t wait for the end of the day to come so that I could hand the kids off to my husband, lay flat on my bed, and do nothing without anyone near me. Not because I didn’t love my people, but because I was spent. It was always crazy to me how exhausted I could feel from just holding babies and making meals and playing on the floor.
Is that you today?
Maybe you’re there. You’re right in the middle of the “I-just-want-to-be-alone-for-five-minutes” years. Maybe you’re daydreaming of running away for a couple hours. You think of all the things you could do if you didn’t have little ones with you all of the time – get your nails done, buy a new outfit, take your time strolling Hobby Lobby. But deep down we both know that if you got a few hours alone, you would be really tempted to pull into the nearest parking lot where you would park the car and take a nap.
Are you there? Is that your moment?
Maybe you’re a few years down the road running from one activity to the next. You’re schedule is full of ball practices and homework and every other event that you and your children have committed to. Your calendar doesn’t have a free day for months, but you’d settle for a few spare hours to just sit and stare blankly not responsible for anyone or anything.
No matter what your day looked like today, no matter what stage of motherhood you find yourself in today, I just want to stop and tell you that you’re going to make it.
I know that there doesn’t ever seem to be enough hours between the end of this day and the beginning of the next. The time after the kids go to bed and before you finally crawl into your own will be the only time that you get to yourself. And while the rest of the day seems to drag on, these few hours seem to fly every night.
You will have to decide if you should spend your free minutes tidying up a bit – maybe get a head start on tomorrow. Maybe you’ll turn on your favorite TV show – an episode of Fixer Upper, or something else easy and happy that doesn’t require anything from you. Or perhaps you’ll open your computer, pick up your laptop, hold your phone up to your face for the first time today without any feelings of conviction that you should be paying attention to your children instead…
And while your newsfeed will be full of stories of what everyone else did today, who got engaged, and who is finally posting Easter pictures… Maybe you will find this post. Maybe someone will share these words with you, and you will know that you’re not alone in how you feel tonight.
I know that you’re tired. I know that today was long, and I know that it feels like tomorrow will be here before we know it. But we’re going to get up and do it all again when the sun comes up. We’re going to wake up and put one foot in front of the other, and we’re going to make it again tomorrow. Because while the days are long, the moments go fast, and before we know it… well… I don’t have to tell you. It’s already been said a million times. It’s already been said that someday you will miss it… that someday you will want it all back… So I’m not going to say those words tonight.
Right now, while we’re smack in the middle of it all? While we are knee deep in motherhood moments? I want to offer some hope for tomorrow.
You’re not alone.
We’re here with you. All of us moms together with the chant in our hearts that we’re going to make it together. We are going to put one foot in front of the other, and one day at a time, we will face everything that is asked of us.
And we will do it arm in arm, shoulder in shoulder, remembering that while motherhood is hard, there are millions of other women in this world who feel just like we do at this exact moment – women who will get up tomorrow and choose to keep going, who will choose to keep loving, who will choose to keep succeeding.
So, rest well, friend. Because tomorrow we will do it all again.
And we will find strength in remembering that motherhood isn’t our job. It is our joy. It is not our obligation, but it is our opportunity. And these moments that seem unending, will all be over before we know it.
You’ve got this, friend. We’re going to make it together.
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