A Mary Moment Monday post

I never appreciated sleep as much as I do now that I have kids. I can feel, inside, how I’ve been stretched, pulled, reshaped by this vocation of motherhood.

I’m not sure I appreciate it on Mondays when I start out feeling as tired as I am today.

Dog tired, that’s me. And I have tired dogs to boot.

This will pass. Someday, hopefully, I’ll wonder what to do with all the time I have to sleep and all the sleep I have. Then I’ll be just like those women who tell me to enjoy ’em while they’re little.

I believe those women. The years fly by, and it’s both a blessing and a curse. One of my friends regularly reminds me that her son–who’s in his 20s–was once the baby with two older sisters. Something in the way she says it makes me realize that the growing we do as mothers doesn’t stop.

Motherhood is a lot of work, and it’s work that doesn’t stop. If you’re lucky, there’s no getting rid of the kids when they’re 18 and technically eligible to get out of the house and live on their own. The worries continue and the work of mothering, though different in many ways, also keeps going.

Today, when I’m debating whether to work or to nap, whether to cuddle or hide with a blankie, whether to take the easy way or muddle through the hard way, I’m going to try to remember to turn to Mama Mary, who was surely dog tired with tired dogs a time or two.

Life was a different back then, more physical and full of real sweat. Did that make it even harder to get up with a fussy baby or a screaming three-year-old?

As I hug my coffee to me and try to not let my to-do list become more important than it is, I’m going to ask Mama Mary to hold my hand. Let’s walk together toward her Son and do the work He has in mind for our day.

image credit: D. Sharron Pruitt