from an article originally posted May 11, 2014…

Oh my soul, I do not need a day to mark the joy that meets me every day, but I will certainly embrace the extra snuggles, homemade treasures, and sweet love on this day. The year has been full of kisses, bedtime heart sharing, hand holding, kindness, and love, and I am unbelievably grateful to have been present in this year. It is my great privilege to meet my children in all of life. When we meet the edges of one another, it is my high calling to press into their hearts and love them in the hard places of life. When they are struggling, fighting, angry, I get to meet their heart, show them the neediness of their hearts for a Savior. I get to share my own struggles with anger, frustration, unkindness and whisper to them my own great need for Jesus. Together, we walk, we stumble, we seek grace, forgiveness, and a softened heart together. A mother is the platform from which their children shine the best of love. A mother is the base from which children begin to feel their own value and worth. The love of a mother builds confidence in their little loves to face the troubles and joys in life.

It is my joy to meet my children in all of life. Each new breath is an answer to my prayers to meet my children in each moment reminding them of goodness and grace. The high calling of being a mommy is a desperate begging of Jesus to show me love and grace, to overfill my cup that it might spill onto my children. In the nearness of God’s goodness, I can live and love in the way I was meant to daily. Some days I meet that high calling, many days I fail, and in that tension of each day, there is repentance, there is the freedom to be wrong, there is the modeling of brokenness as strength. In all my victories and failures, there is always the hope to move in love towards my children.

Thank you Eleanor Grace, Harper Joy Sonnet, Lake Edward, and Story Jane—you have brought me the very best of grace. You have taught me love in a way I would have never known without each of you. It is such a joy to be your mama.

Happy Mama’s day, my dear friends and readers. I honor you today. I honor your high calling and big love. I honor your humility and strength to seek the best of life for your children. I honor the energy you spend in love behind closed doors when no one is looking. The moving in grace towards love matters. You matter, and today, I honor you. Your GIANT love matters. God bless you today.