The Measure of a Mom

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I've been thinking a lot about life and death this week because my 95-year-old grandfather went to be with Jesus. I have been pondering his life of faithfulness, reflecting on how he lived and who he was to me. 

Plato says - "The measure of a man is what he has done with his life." 

When I think about Pappy, I think about all the stories and conversations and moments that weaved together. I don't have "one big memory" because that wasn't how he was. I was prayer warrior, weather watcher, phone caller, breakfast maker, and story teller.

So I ask you - what is the measure of a mom? 

There are a lot of societal expectations sometimes so distracting to our mothering we are left feeling like we don't measure up, or that other mamas have life way more figured out than we do, and I've been reflecting on what matters most to me. 

Elizabeth's List of VERY IMPORTANT THINGS

1. The clothes I wear

"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony." - Colossians 3:12-14

2. Being a trophy wife

"An excellent wife who can find?

    She is far more precious than jewels.

The heart of her husband trusts in her,

    and he will have no lack of gain.

She does him good, and not harm,

    all the days of her life."

    -Proverbs 31:10-12

3. Creating a perfect home

"The wisest of women builds her house,

    but folly with her own hands tears it down."

    -Proverbs 14:1

4. Having the best decorations

"And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." - Deuteronomy 6:6-9

5. Curating a great social media

"But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” - 1 Samuel 16:7

6. Dressing my kids nicely

"Hear, my child, your father's instruction,

    and forsake not your mother's teaching,

for they are a graceful garland for your head

    and pendants for your neck."

-Proverbs 1:8-9

A gentleman at Longwood Gardens commended some friends and I the other day for raising our children --" It's so refreshing to see kids with their moms, not nannies. There IS hope for this country." And an older woman (who I thought was going to judge me for breastfeeding in public when I sat next to her on a bench) merely stated "I wish all moms breastfed." 

I'm not just staying home with my kids. I'm teaching and training and loving and creating space. I'm demonstrating faithfulness on the daily, building the foundations of emotional intelligence, cultivating habits, showing up for the dirty housework and the hard conversations. 

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." - Galatians 6:1

Faithfulness is the measure of a mom. 

Memento Mori is Latin for "remember you must die." It is a reminder to hold life fragilely and to make the most of it. This helps us hold a sacred framework for what matters in our lives. Faithfulness matters.