Status Updates From Detoured: The Messy, Grace-...

51 This doesn’t mean that if you just love Jesus enough, you’ll one day love cleaning toilets. What it does mean is that the daily pouring out of ourselves into our children can be seen as an act of love for God. Our work is not our worth, but our work can be our worship. The unreached goals of your past may whisper in your ear that they will sit unaccomplished forever—& it’s tempting to believe that voice.

Pg. 50 “Imagine, for a moment, that when Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, He sighed heavily and asked each of them, “Do you know who I am? I shouldn’t be doing this.” It’s an uncomfortable image, right? Jesus is kind, meek, lowly in heart, and came to serve. He gave the example of serving his disciples so that we, too, would serve one another.”

Pg. 50 “Serving our family is a holy responsibility with eternal ramifications. God has given us these souls to care for during our time on Earth. We can view this as a privilege instead of a burden (while still managing healthy boundaries for self-care) and grow into the wife and mother of God intended us to be.”

Pg. 49 “This awareness, requires a constant humility and a willingness to adjust—for the greater good of our family—our attitudes and behavior as necessary. That’s not to say it will be easy or convenient; in fact, the opposite is true. We are given repeated opportunities in motherhood to hone this particular skill, and even when we think we’ve grown quite adept at it, we’ll be proven otherwise.”

Pg. 49 “Our personal circumstances and external behavior, for better or for worse, set the tone of our homes. It’s a secret responsibility that rests upon our shoulders to be the ones who establish the temperature in the household. In order to do this in the way God would choose, we first have to be aware—& stay aware— of our impact in our own homes.”

Pg. 48 “Kids are incredibly perceptive, & when our children see us frustrated & unsatisfied with what life has dealt us, we communicate that what we have is not enough to bring contentment—&, in essence, that they themselves aren’t enough. None of us want that to be the message our children receive.”

Pg. 48 “The truth is, in order for us to reach God‘s best, He sometimes allows us to first come face-to-face with the worst.”

Pg. 43 “Go ahead & tell God about what you miss—even the things you deem silly or nonsensical. Perhaps you miss the long drive to work, alone with your thoughts & the radio. Maybe it was shopping guilt-free for work clothes. Whatever it might be, if it matters to you, it matters to God.”

Pg. 41 “God whispered to my heart that, in my own way, I was behaving no differently than my toddler. God told me there was an unknown place of beauty He wanted to take me to, but I did not trust Him enough to follow. I wanted to stay where I was, with what I had known. The truth was, I had never known the reality of working and having a child. I only knew what it was to enjoy my career separate from motherhood.”

Pg. 40 “We can & should bring our questions before Him, knowing He is faithful to answer & our confidence comes through Christ. He will always meet you where you are.”

Pg. 39 “Who we are is unchanged by what we do or what title we hold. Whether you’re changing diapers or performing heart transplants, the bottom line is the same: You belong to God, & that is enough.”

“When we sit before God in surrender, looking for answers & guidance, we humbly open ourselves to His will for our lives. His answers probably won’t come immediately, but He honors persistence.”

Pg. 37 “When we are in the proper position of humility and submission to God, we openhandedly give Him the glory of any title He wishes to hold in our lives and hearts… Jesus is not interested in the titles you hold, but in the ones you allow Him to hold in your life.”

Pg. 29 “This is your path, your motherhood journey, & yours are the children God has entrusted to you. It doesn’t all make sense right now. It really doesn’t have to. For right now, serve God with all that you have, & be content to know that you are enough because He is enough. The rest will fall into place. You’ll see.”

Pg. 29 “This is our allotted time to experience life with all of its tender beauty & aching sorrows. Let’s not spend it comparing & despairing because we believe the lie that perfection is possible outside of Christ.”

Pg. 28 “At His table, you are exceedingly loved, eternally accepted, & forever approved to sit with Him.”

Pg. 29 “The goals He will encourage you to set in the future will look a lot different from the ones you’re used to, but God-set goals are the only ones you want to achieve anyway, right?”

Pg. 26 “He’s asking you to stop striving for approval & achievement & to place your trust in who He says you are: worthy, righteous, beloved. These are the only titles your soul has truly ever held. His credentials are the only ones you need.”

Pg. “If you fall in that category & having a baby didn’t come easily, giving yourself the permission to admit you don’t always enjoy motherhood without also feeling shame can be close to impossible. Motherhood isn’t easy for any of us, regardless of how we entered into it.”

Pg. 25 “For some of you, this process was filled with heartache & dashed hopes. Having a child became something you not only dreamed about, but also placed on a pedestal built of high expectations & sheer determination to feel joyful regardless of your reality.”

Pg. 25 “When God calls us to something, there is no promise of painless transition. Following Him will cost us, and pain will be involved. Motherhood is a sacrifice in itself: We give our bodies over to join with the Creator in the act of creation, with the hope of a great reward for our offering.”

Pg. 25 “We know there is no shortage of good gifts from God.”

Pg. 25 “It might have been sheer disappointment that God‘s timing for your friend was not the same as His for you. While these emotions are valid…we do need to fact-check them to avoid being swept away by a wave of jealousy or disappointment. We have to be willing to become aware of our own false beliefs and unfounded thought patterns so that our response to other people’s good news is genuine and loving.”

Pg. 23 “The speed @ which our kids grow up is one of the many reasons it’s vital for you to have something that is only yours & ignites a passion w/in you. @ some point, your children will no longer need you in the same way they do now, & it’s important you don’t look to them for your own fulfillment. Only Christ can give us the kind of soul-fullness we seek…”

Pg. 23 ““In these days of mundane kid chaos @ home, our worlds are spinning faster than we realize.”

Pg. 23 “I still battle the voices sometimes. Now they tell me that if & when I return to work, I’ll be too outdated and less knowledgeable than coworkers… While the world of our fellow professionals keeps spinning, & the promotions roll in for those we once stood shoulder-to-shoulder w/, our lives @ home feel suspended in time. We are moving for sure.”

RE: Teacher of the Year noms paragraph

I think I’m at peace with not working, especially the job I just left, which I loved. But I do feel a tinge of jealousy when, for example, my former boss said, “[My replacement’s name] is great!” A part of me almost wished she wasn’t so great because, even though I am, I don’t want to replaceable.

Pg. 22 “The coworkers who continued to work, achieving Teacher of the Year noms & earning higher-level credentials, were not taking away my ability to one day do the same. Their success did not ensure my failure. God was asking me to turn my eyes to Him, not to the gifts He had given others… & His answer was clear whether or not I wanted to hear it: I was to stay home… My colleagues were on a different path.”

Pg. 21 “If my day wasn’t filled with activities that were meaningful and enriching to my baby, clearly I was failing in every way. I was letting God down. Being present in the moment, felt both uncomfortable and like too much work.”

“… I threw all my energy into being the best stay-at-home mother I could possibly be… I cleaned like my hair was on fire.”

Pg. 21 “Nothing in my life was recognizable anymore, and I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t happy. My baby was healthy, and so was I. Was that not enough for me? I had so much to be thankful for, and the guilt I felt because of my lack of appreciation threatened to consume any ounce of joy I allowed myself to feel. You’re home while the rest of the world has to work. Your life is so easy.”

Pg. 20 “I don’t believe that God wants us to frantically flit from one thing to another, never pausing to inhale the delight of the present… and exhale gratitude for His gifts. He wants us to be here, in this moment, and grateful. The present is the only place we can truly sit with God. We can’t follow Him anywhere else.”