Did I just write about Mommy Guilt only 3 days ago?  I cannot believe it was me who wrote those words, because today I received it in a three-hour dose.  I do a LOT, but nothing well.  That's what I said to myself today. 

The 10-year-old was in pajamas until noon because he couldn't find shorts to wear; the 2-year-old is going through potty-training and had an "accident" on the kitchen floor; I tried making a nice lunch for dh but it took an hour longer than anyone's stomach planned on waiting; the new puppy was yapping loudly for attention that I didn't have time to give; our luggage was still packed from our trip 6 days ago; my bed wasn't made; the floors were a mess; there was laundry to do; all the children were being disobedient; and I didn't get my God time in.

So I finally crumbled and said to dh, "I do so many things and I want to be perfect at them all. But I don't do anything well." 

Do you ever feel like that?  Overwhelmed with all that you're doing, and even more overwhelmed with all that needs to be done. Finally, you reach a crying point (or a yelling point).  You feel like a failure.  So Satan gets your ear.  He tells you that you're a failure and that you're a really bad mom. 

Do you really think you are? 

I know that you're not. 

God knows that you're not. 

by Lori Seaborg

This is a blog post for mothers.  I am going to give it to you straight. 

You have so much to offer the world. You have so much to offer to God. Don't you think God gave you your personality and your talent for a reason?

Of course!

Satan does NOT want you to use your talents or your magnetic personality. He wants you to think you are a failure. He wants you to look at your faults. He wants you to think you cannot possibly have something to offer others. He wants you to think that you are not likeable or loveable. He wants to defeat you.

Why? You know how he works! You are a terrible threat to him! You have a talent that was given to you by God for a purpose. Satan wants the world to be ugly and people to be lonely. He does not want you to accomplish what God has for you.

You could be used by God in an awesome ministry, even if only for an audience the size of your little family (to God I doubt the number of people we touch in a lifetime matters, but that we touch the ones we were put here to touch). But you will never have a ministry - not one of any kind, not even one to your family - unless you stop listening to Satan's lies. In order to be used by God, you must force yourself to listen only to God while shutting out Satan's lies.

God NEVER, NEVER focuses us on our faults. Satan does.

I once heard that guilt is from Satan, conviction is from God.

Satan wants us to think we are bad mothers (I hear that one daily from him, too!). He likes "mommy guilt."

God would NEVER tell us that we are bad mothers. He is the eternal optimist! He can see what we cannot see. He can see our potential. He may convict us, as He did to me when I needed to apologize to our nine-year-old a couple of nights ago, after yelling at him for hurting his sister. I did not handle it well at all. After I sent him to bed in tears, I felt God convicting me to go to him and apologize. I did that and Brenden and I had a nice time together, talking (children are so forgiving!).

Later, I felt guilt and in tears I said aloud, "I am such a bad mother! I mess up every single day!" But since I've been working on recognizing that mommy guilt is not from God, I didn't allow my mind to stay there.

God would not want me to say that or to think that.

Saying that I am a bad mother does not glorify Him at all. He does not think I'm a bad mother. He doesn't even think the worst mother in the world is a bad mother. Instead, He sees the mother that she could be. Only Satan is served by me thinking that I am a bad mother.

Those words of doubt and guilt that you hear are coming from Satan. He wants you to believe them. If you believe that you have nothing to offer God, then Satan wins because you will not offer anything to God.

Remember, God is the eternal optimist! He sees the wonderful mother, wife and woman that we are capable of being and He ENCOURAGES us to be that person.

God bless you today!

~ Lori Seaborg