Four Prayers for Mamas

God says you're: compassionate, wrapped, first (where it matters) and named in heaven.

Life as a mom

So unpredictable, so consuming, so beautiful, so tiring, so so much.

Your limits feel huge.

Your patience seems small.

You are not sure how you will make it through another hour sometimes.

And yet you don't want to miss a moment either.

You don’t know what today will bring as you rise and aim to shine for your family. But here's a promise: if you know the one who brings the day, you have all you need!

And if you turn your heart to Him in surrender, His love, grace, mercy, and guiding Holy Spirit will walk you through the day.

Here are four prayers for you mama to fight the lies from this world that say you’re not enough while walking with Him.

You're Compassionate, Not Just Chased

I pray that you will feel and know God's compassion in those times you make mistakes and don't end up handling your children as your heart really wants to.

You know those days. We all have them. The ones that are crazy from the moment they rise. Kids squabbling and just being loud. So much other life piled on top. And they're literally chasing you around as you try to deal with it all.

When it’s all upon you, try resting with Jesus (and then serving) like He shows us in Mark 6.

Jesus had just fed the five thousand (doesn't it feel like we've done that by day's end?). Those little mouths that seem to multiply like you're feeding an army? Except at meal time!

Jesus and his disciples had been working and were tired. Scripture says in Mark 6:31: “And He (Jesus) said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat….Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.”

Doesn't this just sound like mom-life?!?!

Here it is though - something to hold in your mama heart.

Verse 34. “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.”

What did Jesus do when chased? Even when He didn’t get to fully rest or have His quiet time? He had compassion on them. The opposite of our fleshly way so often and a gentle nudge from God for what to be practicing. Compassion and teaching our little sheep better ways than the world's ways.

Today as you feel chased by children, a struggle or whatever seems after you in life, look up. God is compassionate with you and says you are a compassionate shepherd ready to love on the chasers with his helping hand outstretched to guide you.

You’re Wrapped, Not Stuck

I pray that you will feel wrapped in God’s love and perfect plan. You are fearfully and wonderfully made by Him (Psalm 139:14) with His plans to prosper you and give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).

Right now you might be in a season of life that feels like you’re stuck at times. That you’re not really free to do more of the things you’d like to enjoy or work on because you’re mostly caring for little hearts and bodies around you…though that’s really what you want to do also. So there’s just this tension where you maybe feel caught in the middle.

As you feel this, aim to pull your eyes up and set your mind on things above, not on earthly things (Colossians 3:2). God will lead you and guide you.

He wants you to enjoy life and to use the gifts He’s given you, but perhaps it’s not the season for you to move so fast on those things as you care for littles who are deeply dependent on you. Look up and lean on Him. They depend on you and He wants you to depend on Him.

God says: “You’re not stuck, you’re wrapped in my arms just like you wrap your littles or they wrap little arms around you. Let my timing and way be your way and wrap yourself in my loving embrace.”

You’re First, Not Last

I pray that you feel your heart growing to love all the ways you are a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). Like when you’re most often the last to get a coat on, last out the door, last to eat, and last to settle in at bedtime.

As you’re getting everybody else’s coats on, shoes, bags packed, bellies full, and beds occupied, you may feel like you’re last in everything.

But mama, if you can practice doing this all with a cheerful and loving heart, God says you’re first.

You’ll be the first to show your special ones God’s love and goodness without just saying it but truly modeling it. You’ll be first in receiving the blessing of loving others well and knowing that you are treating them like Jesus would.

You may be last in the ways of this world but you’ll be first where it matters most.

Named in Heaven vs. a Mess

I pray that you know that your family is named in heaven (Ephesians 3:15).

The world wants you to think that your family is a mess and stay in that rut. That you’re not as good as others who seem to have it all together. That you can’t overcome the mistakes you’ve made and may repeat again.

But God, He says and wants you to know that you are named in heaven. And He doesn’t make messes. He says: “I have called you by name; you are mine.” Isaiah 43:1

I pray Ephesians 3:16-19 over all of our families.

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Praying today that we soak this up and that we are strengthened by His spirit and power, rooted in His love, really receiving and knowing His love, and filled with God in a world that wants us to be full of ourselves and what others think.

Let’s know God mamas. Let’s talk to Him. Let’s let Him make us compassionate, wrapped, first where it matters, and called by the name He’s given us.