You can Do Hard Things, Mama

Tonight we will talk about how we can do hard things as mamas. We will talk about the joy that comes from endurance.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good evening mamas and welcome back to Midlight, your light in the middle of the night. Tonight I want to talk to you about how we mamas can do hard things. You see, there's a scripture verse I want to share with you tonight, and it will encourage us as we go along in our motherhood to continue to pick what's right and run our race well. And it's found in Hebrews 12, 1 through 2. And here is how it reads. Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. The word endurance here really gets my attention because it tells us to let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. And I think about the word endurance as mamas. And I think about, first of all, the word endurance and what it means, which basically is to push through when something is difficult in a situation and persevere. And I think about us and how we are in this night season of motherhood, where we spend many hours awake when others are asleep, and we deal with meeting the needs of babies who are so precious, and their needs are upon us at all times of the day and night, and yet we still have other things pulling on us. We are still a mother for them, a spouse possibly, a daughter, and even a friend. And you know, I think about the different responsibilities that we have and how motherhood is just the most beautiful of them all, because it's in this place that we get to sacrifice our own desires for that of our child's. And in so doing, we are much like Christ in this circumstance, because it also says in this verse from Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1 through 2, for the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross. So Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And you think about his sacrifice for us to go and do that, and then to sit down at the right hand of God, and how we as mothers get the opportunity to love in a sacrificial way for our little ones, and we get to do it with grace, and we get to do it with endurance. And I like how it interestingly says that therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and sin that so easily ensnares us. And I think to myself, we as mamas might not think that we have a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, but we kind of do, because our little ones are taking in everything that we are doing around them and with them and for them, and they are witnessing us as we are ministering to their needs. And then when it says, let us lay aside every hindrance in the sin that so easily ensnares us, I think one of the greatest sins I see in my own self as a mama has been a little bit of the feel sorry for myself that I have to do it all kind of a feeling. And then I realize that God is my helper and that I don't need to expect other people to come along and do the things that I need to do. I need to trust the Lord to help me because He has assigned me to this. So that would be the sin that would ensnare me. I wonder what yours would be. What is it that is the hindrance you need to lay aside, or the sin that's ensnaring you as a mama that's robbing you of this opportunity to run with endurance your race well? Because God gives each of us a race, mama. We are doing this thing that we are entrusted with, and we are walking out this life, and we are running our races, and we're doing it for the Lord, and we can get so caught up in the things of this world that our eyes can be taken off of the fact that this motherhood journey is a godly assignment that He has given us, and we will need endurance. And Mama, I wanted to talk to you tonight about the opportunity we have to do hard things. I have a very good friend who recently has started going to the sauna and then doing cold plunges. When I think of cold water, I immediately almost feel angry. I'm not a cold water girl, and neither is she. But I said to her, how do you handle it when you get in there? And she looked at me and she said, I tell myself that I can do hard things. And I thought, that is beautiful, and it's improving her health, and it's becoming a very big part of her world to take care of herself in this way. And I just think to myself, as mamas, can we do hard things? Yes, yes, we can, and we do all the time, and we are so much more capable than we give ourselves credit for as a mama, because we are intricately built by God to serve our families and to serve these little ones and be the daughter to God that He has called us to be, and we can do it well. I am particularly having a tired day today. I just don't seem to have all the energy that I normally have. It is probably hormones. But you know how it is, mama. You have those days and sometimes you just don't feel like doing anything, but you know that your family needs you, and you know that the laundry is still calling to you, and so is dinner. So what do we do, mamas? We do the hard things. We get up in the night, we get up in the day and do the things that need to be done, and we endure, and we don't just do it because we have to, we do it because we get to, and we get to have two choices with the ways we choose to view this. We can get up and do the hard things and think to ourselves, I can do hard things, and then plunge into the cold water, and know at the end that we did it, and we can move on now, and that's done. Or we can choose not to do it, and our health will take the toll, our families will take the toll, something will take the toll for our choice to not to. You know, maybe we don't want to make that phone call, maybe we don't want to make that meal, maybe we won't want to clean those clothes or those bottles. But you know what, mama? We can do hard things, and we can run our race well, and we can do it with endurance and keep our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, because he is the one that the help will come from. It's not gonna always come in a human form. In fact, he does send people sometimes, but most of the time, he gives us the strength we need as mamas to endure well and to serve well, and then we find our joy. In fact, in this verse in Hebrews chapter 12, it says, for the joy that lay before him. So when Jesus endured the cross, he was keeping his eyes on what was to come. There's a there's a saying in our home that I tell my husband, remember the after, which is funny, but I tell him that so that he can remember that when we get done with this whatever it is, that afterwards we're gonna feel so good that we did it. Maybe it's trimming our tree, maybe it's cleaning the basement, whatever it is, I kind of smile at him and I say, Remember the after, which is when we get to turn around with joy and look back on the job well done. So, mamas, I encourage you to keep going. Run your race with endurance and keep your eyes on the perfecter and the pioneer of your faith. Thank you for joining me tonight on Midlight, Mamas. I would like to leave you with a prayer. May the Lord bless you and keep you, make his face to shine upon you, be gracious unto you, and give you peace. Amen. Until next time, Mamas, take care.