If there’s anyone who “tells it like it is” it’s our kids.

They don’t mince words when they speak. They don’t sugarcoat things so it sounds politically correct or palatable. They don’t hide behind nice-isms and platitudes.

And, often, their honest words are exactly what we need to hear.

Let’s take a sample of some of the comments my progeny generously sprinkled into my week.

“Mama, you’re always on your phone.”

“I thought you said you would work on my project with me.”

“Are you checking Instagram again?”

“When are you actually going to be done? You said “soon” half an hour ago.”

Yup, the mom guilt piles on sometimes.

And before we quickly dismiss it as a feeling that needs to be flicked off quicker than a creepy-crawly on your shoulder, let’s stop to consider something:

Guilt may not be all bad—if we take it to the right place.

There can be mom guilt which is constructive because it causes us to evaluate our lives and take our sin before God who transforms us from the inside out.

God may be using our children to speak truth into our lives. In my case, it had to do with the obscenely long hours I spend online —sometimes to the point of absolute distraction and disconnection.

And here’s the thing: As believing women, we need to hear the truth and respond to it. Simply sweeping everything under the carpet of “Give yourself grace, mama” doesn’t truly sanctify us. The “forgive yourself” mantra doesn’t grow us in our roles as moms who point the next generation to a faithful God who keeps working on us to make us who He intends for us to be.

No, we don’t need to stay trapped in a place of shame which says, “There is no room for me to change. This is who I am.” Neither do we have to give ourselves a carte blanche and ignore uncomfortable feelings that the truth may dredge up.

We have a better, more freeing option: We get to come before a God who forgives us and gives us the power to change.

I dived into this topic in an article for Risen Motherhood. This was my first piece for the site and I’m so pleased that it has resonated with so many women (going by the responses I see on social media).

I hope you find freedom in these words because, ultimately, that’s what the truth does for us: it sets us free.

Click here to read my piece ‘When Your Kids Call You Out’ on Risen Motherhood.

 

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Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash