Don't Let The Devil Steal Your Motherhood: The 10 Strategies

     About 3 years ago I did a study with my Halfway To Sunday moms titled "Don't Let The Devil Steal Your Motherhood". Using the book Fervent as a guide I took the 10 strategies the author gave and used them specifically on motherhood. It was a really good series and I have decided to share it with you. Starting this week I will go over each arrow the devil will throw at you to take away the joy of being a mother. But before I go into strategy 1 I am going to list them so you know what will come in the following weeks. This is a series you are not going to want to miss!

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10 Strategies - The devil WILL come against your motherhood by:

1. Attacking your passion to be a mother
2. Attacking your focus on what being a mother is
3. Attacking your identity as a mother
4. Attacking your family's unity 
5. Attacking your confidence to be a mother
6. Attacking your calling of motherhood
7. Attacking your purity of motherhood to certain parasites
8. Attacking your ability to feel like taking a break is okay
9. Attacking your heart
10. Attacking your relationship with your children​

Strategy 1: Attacking your passion to be a mother

     The above picture is a photo of my dad and I just last week. There is no doubt that now that we are older my parents are having a lot of fun with us! Going on vacations where they don't always have to pay for everyone, having dinners together where they aren't always the ones having to cook, celebrating their birthdays instead of trying not to be hurt if it was forgotten by us. Yes, my parents are in a, and I stress 'a', sweet spot in parenting (meaning there is more than one). But the reason they are in this spot (and there have been bumps along the road, we are NOT a normal family) is because of the way they raised us earlier on. It wasn't perfect, not even close, but a lot of it was pretty darn great! Because of this the relationships have stuck and continue to grow. So, let me ask you a couple of questions then. Do you remember the feelings you felt when your child(ren) were born? Do you still feel the passion to be a mother today? What is something that is stealing your passion of motherhood?
     For me, I can still remember the feelings (especially of my daughter) when they were born. Briseis by far was the most...euphoric and I love returning to that memory. At this moment in writing, yes, I still have a passion to be a mother; but my passion tends to get stolen A LOT by the spiritual sugar I talked about last week. I tend to get sucked into the trap of doing good for others and then just giving my children my left overs. Not healthy.

Passion is what burns up the road between a child in danger and a parent in pursuit. It glows red-hot. And goes on driving. And grows even larger, the larger the obstacles become.
~ Fervent

     So how do we fight back? Take your stance against the devil! To take a stance against the devil we need a few things. First, diligent praying. We must pray for our passion to return, for God was the one to give it so He is the one to rekindle it and breathe life back into it. We must take up OUR armor and declare to the devil that God is in and he is most definitely out. This is our calling and no matter what he yells it does not change God's destiny for us. We are mothers until the END! Second, is constant grace. We realize it's non stop for God himself but are so reluctant to give grace to ourselves. We are going to make mistakes and that needs to be okay, as hard as it might be to believe, it really is. Lastly, we need outside help. We need to be able to have a day for us. God even commands it. He created rest knowing 24/7/365 parenting would leave us...dead. We must find those places, whether pampering ourselves, exercising, going on a weekend get away, finding a small group or a hobby; whatever it is that lets us unwind and refuel. We need friends that are "no" friends, who can be honest to our faces when they see us taking on something new that will take away from our passion of motherhood and leave our children with grumpy left overs.

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     So at the end of the day mom, if this is ringing a familiar tune to you, stand up and take back the passion of your motherhood. Do it in the knowledge that God is for you and will fight for you, that your friends and loved ones are there to help you but you have to ask. And remember that feeling when your child was born and take your stand against the devil's arrow. You got this!

Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up ~