Best Job in the World

I didn't always consider being a mom as "the best job in the world". I don't even think I thought of it as one of the best jobs in the world. I never daydreamed of being a mother. Well, maybe when I was a little girl and liked playing house. I may have dreamed of being a mother then. But, once I got into my teen years being a mother was nothing I looked forward to. 

Then I became a mother. And at a fairly young age. Actually, a very young age. I was only 18 years old. Pretty young, right? I was so concerned about learning how to do things "right" that I didn't give myself much time to enjoy the experience. And I really did want to enjoy it. I wanted to milk each moment for what it was worth, but just learning to nurse was all the milking I managed. Sorry. Had to say it. And nursing was hard! Let me say that again. Nursing was HARD! I was so engorged. SO. MUCH. PAIN. I had so much milk that I had to use a breast pump before nursing to release some of the pressure so the baby could latch on. I didn't feel or look human.

In addition to nursing I was scared about the umbilical cord. I didn't feel life could resume to normal again until it was gone. I just didn't want to have to worry about it hurting my baby, but when the umbilical cord was finally gone it seemed there was something else to worry about taking its place. Rest seemed to elude me. I began the common "mom habit" of living for the future instead of living in the present moment. And I didn't even realize I was doing it.

I didn't realize I wasn't allowing myself to really smell that clean baby smell after getting her out of her bath, massaging her little body as I applied baby lotion. There isn't a better smell and I should have breathed in more deeply, more purposefully.  I thought I was simply getting her ready for bed. Bed had nothing to do with it. Not really. It was really about being a mother. And I missed it.

We can't absorb every moment of goodness a child will bring into our lives. There are too many of them. But, we can learn to absorb more moments and even learning to do that will season our souls with beauty. It scatters away the icky, pressured mommy feelings and replaces them with peace. Deep, heartfelt peace. Have you noticed it is always the simple things that provide the greatest pleasures? And when small things are good, the big things don't seem so important, do they?

"But the worries of this life... come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful." Mark 4:19