After the resurrection

“If you love me, keep my commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever” John 14:15-16

Up at 5 am, cleaning the kitchen while cooking breakfast and sorting laundry for the next wash has become an occasional event in my home.  Working in the silence and dark of the early morning hours has become the time to get a clear head and get things done before the chaos of the morning marathon to run littles out of the house on time for school begins.  Each time I wonder, how am I going to get through a full workday and the evening marathon without hitting the wall of fatigue.  Somehow, it happens.  Motherhood requires us to be caretakers, money managers, cooks, cleaners, healthcare providers, interior designers, stylists of hair and clothes and that’s just the morning load.  We have much to do leading us, at times, to feel the weight of it all.  Motherhood calls us to love fiercely inside our home and as Christians outside our home too. In our own power, this task might be too much.  To face the world and its expectations with love and without utter exhaustion day to day would be too much.  So how is it that on even the heavy, hard days we get up the next day and do it again? How is that we do not shrink back, throw I the towel and ask for a do over?  The holy spirit is the reason.  After the resurrection, Jesus said to the disciples that it was better that he go away otherwise the helper, the holy spirit, will not come (John 16:7).  Let’s spend some time hearing what scripture says about the holy spirit.

Prayer assist

“likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” Rom 8:26.  The weight of what we do as moms or the burdens we carry for our children can feel like it chokes the breath out of us. It can leave us under so much pressure that words escape us or cloud our thought processes so that we cannot find the words through the fog.  In those moments, the holy spirit speaks for us giving words to the unspeakable, translating the unintelligible.  The holy spirit takes the sighs, cries, groans and moans to the Father with a clear request.  The Father hears us even when we cannot think to speak through the work of the holy spirit. 

Counselor

“But the Helper, the holy spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” John 14:26

Not only can the holy spirit help us when we do not know what to say but because motherhood ushers in plenty of moments when we do not know what to do the holy spirit offers guidance as well.  It has been said that kids do not come with a manual, but God does provide a guidebook.  Scripture to show us how to train them is brought alive through revelation through the power of the holy spirit.  Those moments when a scripture comes to mind seemingly out of the blue is the holy spirit guiding us.  Times when we read a scripture we’ve read or heard plenty of times in the past, but it hits us in a new way is the holy spirit teaching us.  There are times when we just know something is off with our littles or they are up to something nudging us to check in on them is the holy spirit working. The holy spirit gives us the ability to be the mom our children need and to parent them the way the Lord desires.   

Fruitfulness

Gal 5:22“But the fruit of the spirits is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control; against such things there is no law”.  The holy spirit feeds our spirit to develop in us what God has planted.  Without the holy spirit, the ability to have patience with our children would be difficult. Our ability to love the way God calls us to love would be challenging without the holy spirit.  We cannot hold our peace when the chaos swirls around us except through the power of the holy spirit.  To be kind and show goodness or self-control would be a task that would cause us to buckle without the strength of the holy spirit.  It is the holy spirit that causes us to be what God has called us to be.  It is the holy spirit that gives us what we need to keep going in peace and power, to mom on another day.

Sow the seed:

It is the holy spirit that helps us stand under the weight we carry. It is the holy spirit that guides us on how to parent and it’s the holy spirit that develops the seeds God has planted in us to be more like Him and have the fruitful life of abundance He promises.

Nurture the seed:

·       “likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” Rom 8:26

·       “But the fruit of the spirits is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control; against such things there is no law” Gal 5:22