Mom, Look to God to Be What You’re Not

“Mommy, I need your help!” Responding to my 7-year-old daughter’s cry, I found her standing beside a drawer full of clothes that fell out of a bureau. She assured me she wasn’t hurt, but the drawer was clearly too heavy for her to lift. Yet what seemed impossible for her was easy for me, and it only took me a moment to pick up the drawer, realign it, and slide it back into place.

From infancy, our children depend on us to do for them what they can’t do for themselves: to feed, clothe, and house them. They look to us to be for them what they aren’t: strong, brave, and wise. We cuddle and soothe, protect and encourage them. We drive them to practice and counsel them through conflicts with friends. But as much as we might want (and try) to be everywhere, do everything, ask all the right questions, and speak all the right words, we just can’t.

Parenting, perhaps more than anything else, reveals our limitations—and uncovers our sin. Just as our children look to us for help, recognizing we can do for them what they can’t do for themselves, we need to look to God and ask him to do what only he can do in our lives and in our families.

Moms Need God to Be God

When motherhood exposes our limitations and sin, we look to God to be what we’re not: self-existent, self-sufficient, sovereign, holy, and powerful. We find comfort in knowing that God isn’t bound by time and that he’s unchangeable in his nature, especially when our seasons change. We’re grateful that our perfect heavenly Father models love, patience, and faithfulness to us as we parent our children. We marvel at how God’s invisible character is made visible in Jesus (Col. 1:15–19) and is on full display in the gospel.

When motherhood exposes our limitations and sin, we look to God to be what we’re not: self-existent, self-sufficient, sovereign, holy, and powerful.

But when mom life overwhelms us, how can we keep the character of the true God—the one we need, not the one of our imaginations (Ex. 20:3–6)—front of mind? By regularly meditating on who the Lord reveals himself to be in his Word. A. W. Tozer defines an “attribute” of God as “whatever God has in any way revealed as being true of Himself.” Considering God’s nature through the study of his attributes gives us a fuller understanding of his character.

When I look at God’s attributes, I ask, “What difference does it make to me as a mom that God is . . . (self-existent, all-knowing, unchangeable, etc.)?” It makes all the difference in my parenting when I remember that the Lord isn’t only good and wise but also jealous for his glory and wrathful toward sin. We need to understand the full range of God’s attributes.

Eight Ways to Meditate on God’s Character

Here are eight ideas (and some free resources) to help you meditate on God’s character daily.

1. Find or make a list of God’s attributes along with Scripture passages that help you understand them. For example, you could print my attributes of God chart and put it somewhere you can easily access like your Bible, your desk, your pantry, or your car.

2. Pick one attribute a day to focus on when you pray. Praise God for that aspect of his nature and ask him to help you better understand its implications in your life, especially in the work of motherhood. My chart includes 30 attributes, so you could pray through the whole list each month.

3. Memorize a key verse related to each of God’s attributes. You might pick one verse a week (or one verse a month) and keep going until you make it through all the attributes.

4. Start an attributes journal. Write a different characteristic of God on each page, and when you encounter that attribute as you read and study Scripture, copy down the verse on the appropriate page.

5. Using a journaling Bible, look for God’s attributes as you read through a book of the Bible or work through a Bible-in-a-year reading plan. As you notice specific attributes mentioned or exemplified, underline them in the text and identify them in the margins.

6. Each week, select a different aspect of God’s character to focus on as a family. You could read and discuss related Scripture during family devotions or memorize a verse about each attribute together.

7. Play music that exalts God’s attributes. Listen to my “Every Hour I Need You” playlist on Spotify for songs that will help you meditate on specific aspects of God’s character.

8. Spend intentional time outdoors and look for evidence of God’s character on display in creation. Even in your neighborhood or backyard, creation is declaring God’s glory.

We were never meant to be super-parents. God designed us to depend on him for “life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). So when motherhood shows us we’re finite creatures, it’s not a bad thing.

When motherhood shows us we’re finite creatures, it’s not a bad thing.

We don’t need to feel guilty or discouraged about who we aren’t and what we can’t do, or start comparing ourselves with other moms. Instead, our limitations invite us to go to the One who is and who can, and whose “power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

As we get to know God better for who he is, we draw near to him with confidence, “that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). And we praise him “who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Eph. 3:20).