Moms are Human too! - Jesus Loves Us Too, No Matter What!

Are you ready to explore who you are and how much you are loved and valued as a mom? We as moms tend to be very hard on ourselves and not always have time to care for ourselves or spend time with God to pray. Here is a really a great story of Peter and Paul in their humanity. We often forget we mothers are humans too, not robots.

Peter, a regular fisherman, hot tempered and impatient, was going about his regular duty when Jesus asked him to follow Him-and that he did. He left everything behind and became not only one of His devout followers, ones of His closest friends. We know the familiar Holy Thursday story where Jesus goes to bend down and wash the disciples feet and Peter states that He shouldn’t do that because He is their Master-well, Jesus knowing Peter replies back that unless people learn that no master is greater than his servant and likewise the reverse. He also stated more importantly He came to serve, not be served and likewise if you do not do as I do, you will have no part of Me...This shows that we are meant to take care of each other, that no one is above or better than another and that to enter into Christ we too must imitate in His ways of lowering ourselves before others. When Jesus goes to pray in the garden, Peter and the others are asked to stay awake, keep watch, and pray. Three times Jesus comes back to find them sleeping...then when Jesus is arrested, Peter grabs a soldier’s sword and cuts the offender’s ear off in haste-only to be healed by Christ.

Peter, at dinner, had promised not to turn or deny Christ, but would go to the death for Him when confronted by Jesus about him denying Him three times. Peter, as we know, does as Jesus predicts, and denies Christ, his friend three times and runs off because he was ashamed. He was not present for friends suffering or death. In Peter’s flaws and humanness, Jesus would understandably be upset or resentful towards him when he resurrects. However, when Jesus see Peter and the other disciples, His words aren’t of malice, or contempt, but rather love and forgiveness, He states, “Peace be with you!” All is forgiven and now let’s move on; We have work to do!! Talk about a fresh start . . . Jesus always uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things...We could name many, many more whom thought they weren’t up the task, or too unworthy, but God’s love, grace, and purpose prevailed.

Jesus knows that His greatest disciples are human and make mistakes, how then can He not still love us in our humanness? He does and is always with us embracing us as mothers! Just as he was amazing, we saw how he was also just like us...human! In in flaws, weaknesses, able to give into temptations, etc. However, with the peace of God, he was able to turn despair into greatness.

We will now look at our other great model/saint for us -- St. Paul. St. Paul’s story starts out as Saul, a Jewish Pharisee, the type that didn’t like Jesus or Christians, was often witness to Christian persecutions. On a road one day, he is blinded and suddenly see the “Light” revealed to him through Christ. He realizes what he has been doing, and what he should be doing . . . not against Christ, but living for Christ. He taught that faith, hope, and love are important virtues, but that love is the greatest of all. Being pure love is to be like Christ -- it exemplifies what he describes as the fruits of the Spirit. Even when Paul was in jail, he wrote about happiness. How often do we feel imprisoned about life and worry that happiness can never be ours?

It is perfectly normal to want to be in “perfect” circumstances to feel happy or know happiness. Just as with us, moms feel they have to be perfect and everything in our family be perfect! In reality, happiness and joy are a choice we make to respond to our surroundings. It is a practice to which we decide to view things differently. For example, if we perceived that God has allowed certain things in our lives to take place so that it makes us stronger and better, perhaps we too could allow ourselves to see more joy and peace in the works. Like that of a potter’s hand, molding and remolding until his object is perfect, God molds and re-molds us to get us to perfection in Him. From our pains and trials comes great compassion, wisdom, and strength. From these depths God raises us up to do great things-things we alone couldn’t do.

[tweet "God molds and re-molds us to get us to perfection in Him. By @Ginapeacejoyyou"]

Think about a time in your life when you were able to really succeed at something or accomplish something difficult. Was there a lot of hard work put into it? Did it take time, tears, and “sweat”? Maybe not, sometimes, things come easy or naturally for people, other times -- it takes some diligence and lots of determination. In either case, we need to trust the process, the process of following God’s will for us, based on unconditional love and divine greatness for our lives. No matter the degree of what we do, it is in greatness. These great works are all for love of us because He restores what was once broken into something new and magnificent so that we might have all the peace, joy, and abundance in the world!

About the author: Gina Sannasardo, M.Ed., CPC, ELI-MP is a mom, coach, speaker, best-selling co-author, host, and teacher. Gina supports women of faith that are struggling with their business because they have self-doubt, lack confidence, don't have a support system, and relied on themselves rather than on God's plan for them. She decided to become a life coach to fulfill a deeper passion of spreading good news for all to hear. Follow Gina at her website at www.findinggodspeace.com or on Facebook and Twitter.