On Encouragement

Often as mothers we second-guess our attempts at "on the job" mothering and sometimes succumb to an overwhelming feeling of fear that we might get it wrong or even worse, got it wrong (those of us adjusting to an empty nest).  We are just sure there is some other mother out there who could do the job better with our children! That finite thought and the subsequent emotional fall-out can be stifling to the continued flow of our God-given instincts and moments of true inspiration that we have a right to as the mother chosen by Heavenly Father to love and nurture our children.  As an antidote to that sneaky feeling common to every mother I have ever known here's a quote that I find comforting.

"I had to make a leap, a leap of faith, over the gap of imperfection I perceived in myself, my relationships, and my life, to trust that love could never truly be shattered or destroyed.  Only my limited concept of it needed to crumble. (Thank goodness!)  I had to come to a new understanding that love is not an end product chiseled out of the fulfillment of unrealistic expectations of a life---or a relationship---free of conflict.  Love is constant.  Love is steady despite my emotional ups and downs, despite my failures and disappointments, achievements and losses.  Perhaps most importantly I had to recognize that sadness, anger, disappointment, and pain are not antithetical to love, but  are instead signs of love.  Signs of love growing, deepening, being refined like ore in a fire."

Anne M Johnson, ("Return to the Sea")