Mommy Needs Jesus

Jesus doesn’t just like you. He delights in you.

It’s easy for me to feel completely unlovable when I find myself making the same mistakes with my children again and again. My default mode is, “I’m not good enough for my kids, let alone God.”

I remember a season when my husband traveled often for work. Our kids were three and five, and I was pregnant with our third. By the end of the day I was completely exhausted.

Bath time was usually the breaking point. I was worn out, repeating myself over and over, and no one was listening. More often than I care to admit, I yelled.

Afterward, I would kneel beside the bathtub, bury my face in my hands, and sob, overwhelmed with regret.

I felt like I was failing my children. But even deeper than that, I felt like I was failing at the job the Lord had entrusted to me.

The shame would settle in so deeply that I honestly did not know how I was going to dig myself out of it.

God’s Heart Toward Us

But God’s default posture toward us is that of a parent.

One of the most beautiful reminders of God’s heart toward us is found in Zephaniah 3:17:

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you.
In his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Remember the moment you found out you were pregnant and squealed in delight? Or the moment after your child was born when you stared into their eyes and felt a joy you could never fully explain to anyone?

That’s our God.

That kind of love.
That kind of delight.

That is what moved Him to intervene in our sin.

Grace We Could Never Earn

Delight means great pleasure, joy, or deep satisfaction in someone. It is more than simple approval. It is real joy in the person before you.

What do we need to do to earn or deserve this delight?

Nothing at all. That is what makes grace so hard to believe sometimes.

So how did we receive it?

Through Jesus.

Jesus lived the life we could not live, died the death we deserved, and rose again to defeat sin and death. Because of Him, our relationship with God is restored.

We are forgiven, welcomed, and loved not because we earned it, but because Jesus made a way.

Scripture says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith… it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

We receive that gift by trusting in Him.

God did not create us for distance. He created us for relationship. He made us to know Him and to spend eternity with Him.

And in the meantime, while we are here on earth, He delights in delighting in us.

And that means even on the nights when bath time falls apart and we feel like we have failed, His grace has already made a way for us to come back to Him.

Letting Go of Shame

If the God of the universe delighting in you feels like a foreign, unattainable thing, you are not alone. I have been there. Many days I can still find myself there when I take my eyes off Jesus and put them back on myself.

When we are truly abiding, we remember that our strength comes from Him. Even the strength to accept our weaknesses.

His delight is in seeing us delight in Him too. And we can only do that when we come to Him free of guilt and shame.

What would it look like for you to let that go today?

What do you need to lay at His feet so you can freely delight in His delight?

Prayer

Lord, I bring You the guilt and shame I have been carrying. The moments I wish I could redo. The ways I feel like I am falling short.

Help me lay those things at Your feet today.

Remind my heart that Your grace is real and that Your delight in me does not disappear when I struggle.

Teach me to rest in what Jesus has already done for me.

Help me receive Your love with open hands and learn to delight in You the way You delight in me.

Amen.

One day at a time

Lifting our eyes back to Jesus,

Abiding to Thrive

xo, Paula