“For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind.” — 2 Timothy 1:7
Motherhood gives us more to love than we ever knew possible.
And sometimes, it feels like it gives us more to fear too.
From the moment we become mothers, there seems to be an endless list of things we could worry about.
Are they safe?
Are they healthy?
Am I teaching them enough?
Am I spending enough time with them?
Am I disciplining them the right way?
Am I protecting them too much? Am I protecting them enough?
What will the world look like when they grow up?
Will they know Jesus?
Motherhood can make fear feel almost reasonable.
But caring for our children and living in fear for our children are not the same thing.
That is why I keep coming back to the words of Paul in 2 Timothy:
“For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind.”
God did not design us to be ruled by fear.
Fear Has a Loud Voice in Motherhood
There is so much pressure placed on mothers.
Everywhere we look, someone is telling us what our children should eat, how they should sleep, how they should learn, what activities they should be involved in, how much screen time they should have, what milestones they should be reaching, and what kind of mother we should be.
And then there is comparison.
We see another mother’s beautifully organized home.
Her children seem perfectly behaved.
She has the activities planned, the healthy meals prepared, the Bible lessons done, and somehow everyone is wearing matching clothes.
Meanwhile, we may be wondering if cereal counts as dinner.
Fear often starts with two simple words:
What if?
What if I make the wrong choice?
What if something happens to them?
What if I fail them?
But God has not asked us to raise our children from a place of constant fear.
He has given us something better.
Power. Love. And a sound mind.
Motherhood With Power
Some days, motherhood does not make us feel very powerful.
Sometimes motherhood looks like being awake in the middle of the night with a sick child or cleaning the same mess for the third time that day.
There are plenty of moments when we feel completely exhausted and inadequate.
But the power God gives us is not about being a perfect mother.
It is about recognizing that we do not mother in our own strength.
God equips us for the work He gives us.
There will be days when we don’t feel capable.
There will be seasons when we have no idea what we are doing.
There will be decisions where we pray, seek wisdom, and still wonder whether we chose correctly.
But we can trust that the God who gave us these children will also give us the strength we need to mother them.
Motherhood With Love
This one may seem obvious.
Mothers love their children deeply.
But fear and love can sometimes become tangled together.
We love our children so much that we want to protect them from everything.
Every disappointment, mistake, heartbreak, or struggle.
But eventually we realize that we cannot control every circumstance our children will face.
And we were never meant to.
Our job is not to create a life for our children where nothing difficult ever happens.
Our job is to love them, guide them, teach them, pray for them, and continually point them toward Christ.
Love says:
I will protect you where I can.
I will guide you while I can.
I will pray for you always.
And I will trust God with the places I cannot reach.
That last one is especially difficult for myself.
We cannot be beside our children every moment of their lives.
But God can.
Motherhood With a Sound Mind
I think mothers especially need this part of the verse.
A sound mind – some translations say self control.
A mind that can recognize fear without allowing fear to take control.
There are nights when one small concern can become ten imaginary disasters before we ever fall asleep.
A child coughs, and suddenly we’re imagining the worst.
They struggle with something, and we’re worrying about their entire future.
Someone makes a comment about our parenting, and we replay it for days.
A decision has to be made, and we analyze it from every possible angle because we are terrified of making the wrong choice.
But we do not have to give every fearful thought a home in our minds.
We can stop.
We can pray.
We can seek wisdom.
We can look at what is actually true instead of everything that could possibly happen.
And we can remember that God loves our children even more than we do.
That truth alone brings me so much comfort.
They are his before they are ours.
He created them.
He knows them completely.
He sees the places we cannot see.
And He is not asking us to control their entire lives.
He is asking us to faithfully mother them today.
Our Children Need Faithful Mothers, Not Perfect Ones
I think sometimes we put an impossible burden on ourselves.
We feel like we have to make every right decision so our children will have every right outcome.
But there is so much freedom in realizing that we are not the Savior of our children.
Jesus is.
We are their mothers.
And that is a beautiful, sacred responsibility.
We get to teach, nurture, comfort, correct, and pray.
We get to show them what it looks like to love Jesus in everyday life.
And maybe one of the greatest things we can teach our children is what it looks like to trust God when we are afraid.
They do not need to see a mother who never struggles.
They need to see a mother who knows where to turn when she does.
A mother who prays when she is worried.
A mother who opens her Bible when her mind is overwhelmed.
A mother who says, “I don’t know what is going to happen, but I know God is faithful.”
A mother who shows them that fear doesn’t get the final word.
For the Mother Who Is Worried Today
Maybe you are carrying a fear about one of your children right now.
Maybe there is something you cannot fix or something out of your control.
Remember what God has given you.
Power for the moments when you feel weak.
Love to guide the way you mother your children.
A sound mind when fear tries to convince you that everything is falling apart.
And remember what He did not give you.
A spirit of fear.
You do not have to know everything that is coming.
You do not have to have every answer.
You do not have to control every outcome.
You simply have to be faithful with the children and the day God has placed in front of you.
And when tomorrow comes, He will meet you there too.
I’m praying for you this week.
Andrea Woods
Owner, Still Waters Mercantile