I remember a time when I begged God to make me just like other super-moms and super-wives \u2013 organized, intentional with preparing healthy meals, ensuring my children were the respectful, honorable, ideal kids, and dutifully being the \u201cpristine and perfect\u201d wife, with a \u201czippedy-do-dah\u201d kind of personality. I so wanted to imitate other women who were all that and a bag of chips!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it didn\u2019t take long before I was absolutely miserable. I mentally beat myself up for not having what it obviously took to be a great mom and wife. What was wrong with me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I thought of those days as I, once again, read the story of Mary, the teenage mother of Jesus. My heart beat so fast as I realized she didn\u2019t meet the standards of Supermom and Superwife that I\u2019d set for myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Somehow, just as she was, God chose her to be Jesus’ mother. And the only qualification she seemed to have was her willingness. We see her trust in God’s plan in Luke 1:38: “‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled.'”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mary could have easily rattled off a list of the reasons she should be passed over for such an incredible challenge AND privilege. Too young. Too poor. Too inexperienced. Just a simple girl from a town of no great consequence. Oh \u2026 and a virgin. Which makes having a baby impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And yet, we find the angel Gabriel standing before her in Luke 1 proclaiming she has been chosen. That she, Mary, is the blessed and highly favored vessel God wants to use to bring forth His one and only Son, Jesus. The Messiah. (Luke 1:30-33)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I spoke of her \u201cHOW?\u201d in my blog a few days ago and Gabriel graciously explained the Holy Spirit would overshadow her and added, \u201cNothing is impossible with God.\u201d (Luke 1:35-37)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All God wanted from Mary was her willingness. And He let me know it was all He wanted from me too. He had already given me the exact qualities He knew my children would need in a mother; the exact qualities He knew my husband would need in a loving and devoted wife. I just needed to lift my willingness up to Him daily and let Him help me be the best version of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe you aren\u2019t feeling very qualified today. Maybe you feel like God should pass you over and pick someone else for the assignments He\u2019s placed before you. If that\u2019s you, I want you to know this \u2014 God absolutely loves to take ordinary people and do extraordinary things in them, through them and with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\u2019s not waiting on you to impress Him. He simply wants you to say \u201cyes\u201d to Him. \u201cYes, Lord. I\u2019m Yours. All of me. All for You.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the beautiful scenes of Christmas from God\u2019s Word encourage us to stop offering God our excuses and lists of why He can\u2019t work in us and through us. May we truly believe with our whole hearts that nothing is too hard for Him. And may we lay down our measuring sticks of perfection and humbly bow our heads as we offer Him our willingness today. We surrender all!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dear Lord, thank You so much for the beautiful example of surrender You gave us through Mary. We lift our willingness to You today in all areas of our lives — at home, at work, in ministry and in our relationships. Our greatest desire is to be the men and women you\u2019ve called us to be and not anyone else. Through Christ our loving Lord, we pray. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I remember a time when I begged God to make me just like other super-moms and super-wives \u2013 organized, intentional with preparing healthy meals, ensuring my children were the respectful, honorable, ideal kids, and dutifully being the \u201cpristine and perfect\u201d wife, with a \u201czippedy-do-dah\u201d kind of personality. I so wanted to imitate other women who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25358,25359,25360],"tags":[25353,1210,1769,251,13615,25356,40,6882,542,876,25357,8084,25354,25355,139,6887],"class_list":["post-17235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-being-enough","category-super-mom","category-super-wife","tag-being-enough","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-christmas","tag-gods-word-2","tag-i-am-the-lords-servant","tag-inspiration","tag-luke-138","tag-mary","tag-nothing-is-impossible-with-god","tag-say-yes","tag-standards","tag-super-mom","tag-super-wife","tag-surrender","tag-willingness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17242,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17235\/revisions\/17242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}