Easter: Why It Matters For Moms

I roll my eyes in annoyance as the milk cup is thrown to the floor for the 127th time today. 

I lose my cool again at the toddler who is doing cartwheels off the couch. 

Meanwhile, the baby didn’t nap. Therefore, I’m extra impatient and the house is a wreck.

It’s 5PM, there’s no plan for dinner and the fridge is empty.

I can literally feel my blood pressure rising from the sheer exhaustion of “one. more. thing.” as I realize I never put yesterday’s laundry in the dryer. 

If it’s not anger, impatience or frustration that I feel in these moments it is most inevitably: guilt. Guilt for losing my cool again. Guilt for not doing “enough.” Guilt. Anger. Guilt, repeat.  

Easter matters for Moms.

Motherhood is not for the faint of heart. It has exposed my weakness more than I ever anticipated. 

If we’re all honest, motherhood can bring out the very best and the very worst in us. Some days all goes as planned, and some days you fight to maintain your sanity and wonder whose tantrum was worse that day, the toddler’s or yours? Some days the sight of one more cheerio on the floor is enough to make you lose your marbles. (Just me?) 

Easter matters for Moms.

What I’ve learned in my short tenure as a Mom (my oldest is 2) is that our children aren’t the only ones who need instruction, guidance, and disciplining. 

Moms need to be parented too. 

Moms have the same strong will as the toddlers we raise. We carry the same propensity for insecurities that our middle school daughters wrestle with. Our hearts are often filled with the same disregard for authority that we see in our “too-cool-for-school” teenagers.  

To be frank, this “propensity,” this “problem” is called sin and we all have it, yes even Moms. What’s more sobering is that my sin affects every relationship I have including those I cherish most: my relationship with my spouse, with my children, and with God. The problem is, there’s no self-help “pull yourself up by your boot straps” mentality sufficient to remedy it. It’s a serious issue in need of a serious solution.  

Easter matters for Moms.

I have heard it once said that, “What God requires, God supplies.” God is both holy and just therefore he requires righteousness. How can I ever measure up? I can barely keep 1 room of my house clean much less my own overwhelmed heart! 

What God requires, God supplies. 

The good news of Easter is that there is One who willingly laid down His life to rescue, and redeem us. God has a plan to fashion us into Moms who are able to reproduce the glorious grace we receive from Him and extend it back to our children — even in those moments when the proverbial straw “breaks the camels back.” (Read: when you step on a lego… again).  

In His great mercy God sent Jesus to pay the penalty for my sin through his perfect obedience, his death and his resurrection. The free gift of salvation and restored fellowship is extended to me by faith in what God has done. 

All my efforts aside.

All his righteousness supplied. 

Easter matters for Moms.

Easter is more meaningful to me each year now that I am a mother. My understanding of God’s love for me grows with each passing year as I seek to display sacrificial, unconditional love to my own children. Easter reminds me of the greatest act of love of all time and this is the motivation I need in the trenches of motherhood. 

The miracle of Easter is not just that Jesus died on the cross. That is only half of the story. Jesus died on the cross for my sin and he rose again. His resurrection is unique in all of history and proved his power over sin and death. This is the good news of Easter! 

God supplies redemption from our sin through Jesus and as a result we also receive strength to parent, grace to mother, and hope to endure. Easter matters, it deeply matters. 

So WHY does Easter matter for Moms? 

Because Moms need to be parented too. But more than that, Moms need rescuing.

Only a gracious Father can freely provide us both through Jesus.  So Mamas, whether you’re brunchin’ or egg huntin’ this Sunday, may you know the real joy of Easter and may it matter to you.  

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. – Philippians 2:4-11