Mother’s Day weekend was really special this year. My entire family came for a visit—a rare and welcomed treat.
I got to spend Mother’s Day with my mom and my boys. 
{And just because the outtakes are comical and tell the real story….here you go!}
John Wicks was dedicated to the Lord on Mother’s Day. In other words, Adam and I made a commitment before our church family to model for our son what it means to fear the Lord by loving Him with all our heart, soul, and might. Before our church, we promised to diligently teach John Wicks the character and ways of God as we go about our daily living–as we sit, walk, lie down and rise (Deuteronomy 6). We promised to hold up the free gift of the Gospel to our son and exhort him to respond in repentance and faith. We know only God can change our son’s heart. It is God alone who saves. But it is we who teach and tell and walk by faith before his little eyes. We pray that God will draw John Wicks to himself at a young age…all to the praise of His glorious grace!
JW had a bad cold virus and slept through the entire dedication. Bless it. 
Afterward, a church member needed to make a family picture of us for senior scrapbooks, so we had the perfect opportunity to document the morning with our families. 
Adam’s sweet parents drove six hours for the dedication. We were thrilled to have them. 
How blessed I am to be a mom. My two boys are precious and undeserved gifts from the Father. During this season, mothering is non-stop. It’s hard. It’s exhausting. It requires all of me. It requires me to constantly look to Jesus for extra measures of grace, strength, patience, and joy. Luke is endearing, smart, loving, creative, funny, talkative, loud, rebellious, {often} destructive, and challenging. John Wicks is cuter than cute, tough as nails, more curious than George, physically strong, strong-willed, and passionate for food. Both boys bring so much joy and adventure to my life. I’m so thankful to get to spend my days caring for them, kissing them, teaching them, playing with them, reading to them, and seeking to point them to the goodness and greatness of our God.
Each Mother’s Day, I am acutely aware that many women are experiencing more pain than joy. I am also aware that some of my future Mother’s Days could hold greater levels of pain than joy. The curse of “pain in child-bearing” comes in so many forms and includes so much more than simply the physical pain of birthing a baby: infertility, miscarriage, stillborn babies, sick children, death of children, wayward children, lost children, and more. On Mother’s Day, I hurt for those experiencing pain, and I pray that God would ease the pain of so many I know and offer rich joy and comfort in the knowledge of Him. More than that, I pray and KNOW that God will use all things, even the painful things, for good in the lives of those who know Him. He will use every form of “pain in childbearing” to make us more like His Son Jesus and to prepare us for “an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Cor 4:17). Amen.
Gospel-Shaped Womanhood 