I found myself today sitting on the shag carpet in our living room next to a pile of spit-up, surrounded by blocks and piles of clothes my toddler pulled out of her dresser right after I had cleaned up earlier in the day, a crying baby in one arm and a crying toddler in my other arm, and I was in full on meltdown-mode. I was so overwhelmed with this feeling of being stuck and so incredibly in over my head, and I didn’t even care that I was letting my toddler watch me sob and kind of throw a mini fit.

I think people do a great job of talking about how obviously amazing having kids is and what a blessing they are. Because they are. But I’m not sure I was warned enough about how utterly difficult momming is; how much self-sacrifice is required of you once you become a mama. Maybe it’s just me, and maybe I just went into this whole thing with completely wrong expectations. I mean, in my defense, I think we all have that friend on our instagram pulling around 5 kids under the age of 4  with SUCH ease and whimsy, going to water parks or play dates or gymnasiums or museums every day of the week and oogling over how amazing mom life is. I know social media is a trap of comparison, but I didn’t even realize I had fallen into that trap until I had 2 kids and realized I was so not the mom any of those ladies seemed to be for their kids.

But maybe some of you moms reading this actually DO relate to me and have felt the same exact way. Maybe you don’t have the help you thought you would have in taking care of your kiddos. Maybe you pictured yourself being one of those moms at the zoo with four of her other mom friends all lugging their kids around in red Radio Flyer wagons, chatting away about life and their kids but real life has proven you, instead, to be the mom home alone day after day, getting out only to brave the grocery store or to go to Target to get that weird feeling of freedom you can only experience at Target, no matter how many kids you have to bring with you. Maybe you don’t have the community you thought you’d have in this incredibly hard season and loneliness has kind of overwhelmed you.

If you find yourself relating, please contact me. Lets hang out. Lets go to the zoo with our kids. Let’s talk about real life instead of constantly running to the addiction of comparing ourselves to the other moms on our instagrams inadvertently telling us our worth. Let’s do this together.

Because the reality is there are days, and many of them actually, that feel like too much. There are many days I need a reminder of the bigger picture of motherhood because I can’t see it through the chaos of laundry and boogers and being pooped on. We desperately need each other as moms.

Momming is tough. It’s a daily dying to self. A daily self sacrifice. A constant season of sowing.

Sowing and sowing and sowing and sowing and wondering WHEN will the reaping come? The constant giving of self makes it easy to wonder, WHO IS GOING TO FILL ME UP? And I am reminded of this verse.

 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not give up.

–Galatians 6:9

Let us not lose heart in DOING GOOD. Mama, your life is being spent on doing GOOD to the little ones who look up to you. Who knew doing good could be so exhausting? But the promise here is that your unseen, often unnoticed, unpraised acts of goodness towards your children WILL reap a harvest in your life. Not probably or maybe or if you’re lucky. It’s a cause-and-effect of the Kingdom. As you expend yourself day in and day out with what seems like no end in sight, you are actually building something incredibly huge and wonderful. Motherhood is all about focusing on the UNSEEN versus the SEEN. When all you do is look at the things right in front of you, it’s so overwhelming sometimes. But gosh, we need each other so we can remind one another that there is a bigger picture! We can’t see it, but it IS there. We ARE building something wonderful for the Kingdom of God. The sacrifice of ourselves day in and day out is a fragrance to Jesus that smells like nothing else; so pleasing and wonderful to Him. It’s wonderful because you are starting to walk a little more like Jesus, look a little more like Him, smell like Him. He recognizes Himself in you as you bring yourself low so He can lift you up in due time. And he will.

Don’t lose heart, friend. Whoever you are. Momming is hard. And we need each other in it. Reach out to me. Let’s go to the zoo and remind each other of the goodness of God through the midst of the chaos of boogers and spit-up and poop.