I am unfit to be a mother

I think a lot of moms have felt this at one time or another in their parenting journey.  I know I have.  I am fighting it right now because I find these teen years so daunting.  How will prepare them for their life?  I can I train them when I myself feel untrained and still learning. 


This morning during my coffee time I read this (found here:  http://mybigthree.highcallingblogs.com/2010/08/24/parent-credentials/   click on link to read all of her thoughts, this is just a portion, just the portion that spoke to me).

Whenever I feel this inadequacy, I turn to these Scriptures . . .

For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am . . .

. . . and my feeling is confirmed: I am unfit to be a mother.

Yet here I am, a mother; three undeniable evidences sit around our dinner table, drink four gallons of milk per week, and throw their dirty socks in the laundry basket. I am, in fact, a mother. This means that God has made me what I am not fit to be. Every time I try to understand that, I can’t, really. God gave me this job, even though I am under qualified. Counter intuitively, this knowledge—this realization that I am unfit to be a parent—strengthens me as a parent. My best parenting credential is God’s grace. By the grace of God, I am what I am . . .

. . . and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
(above quotes are from 1 Corinthians 15:9-10)

The parenting role is overwhelming, but I strive and try harder to be a good parent, even while recognizing that I am a parent only by God’s grace.