Good morning, and Happy Mother’s Day here in the USA. It’s a beautiful day here on the farm. We started our weekend with warm temps, lots of sunshine and twin baby does being born to our half Nubian/alpine doe Linda. They are beautiful and doing well. Watching farm life embrace motherhood is always so powerful to me. If I’ve learned anything living on a farm, it’s that you can learn a lot about God’s heart. Everyday is a lesson, if you pay attention you will see so much truth and beauty wrapped up in even the mundane things like cleaning stalls, things not usually in the Instagram pictures.
I hear so many mothers, and read so many things from women claiming they are more than “just a mom” well I’ve grown to learn if you see motherhood that way, you are missing the most beautiful part. Mothering life is a gift from God. It’s the most honorable call you have on your life and the most impactful ministry. It’s more than bottles and diapers and dishes and being tired… it’s so much more! It’s creating and nurturing and learning and equipping a life to go into the world and change it forever. It’s planting seeds in a garden, watering and patiently waiting then pulling in a harvest to feed nations, it’s planting trees to clean the air and give shade, it’s loving the neighbors kids and grown up kids and helping momma’s with crying babies in the store. Motherhood is more spiritual than it is worldly if you embrace it. Even if you’ve never given birth, you can be called to Mother life. I know so many women who love and mother all life and have never given birth.
I love watching animals become mothers, they usually spend the first few days doing nothing but caring for their babies. I can sit and watch for hours. They don’t stop, they don’t even want to stop. Sometimes you a get a momma with no natural instinct and you know what I’ve noticed when I have to take her babies and make them mine, she misses out. She doesn’t even know for sure what she is missing, but she acts different than the others. But the momma that knows she is “just a mom” right now, they are beautiful because they know they have a life to show/teach how to survive and that is most important to them.
I’ve always been a lover of all life. I’ve not always been the best mother, I’ve been selfish and I’ve even believed the lie there is more than being a mom out there a couple times.
There will be more and you’ll see that one day.
But it’s not your assignment right now momma. Take my word for it, you are planted where you are for a reason. A plan bigger than we can even fathom, a plan painted and directed by a God that is good and works it all for our good! When I was 17 I found out I was going to have a baby. I was terrified, mostly because of the things I was told by the world. Things like having a baby would ruin my life. That is a lie from hell. Having a baby is not easy at any age, and it is never meant to ruin anything. I was 18 when he was born, and he almost died at birth. Right then my mothering instinct kicked in, and it took over naturally. I was praying for God to strengthen me and save him and He did both. That boy will be 18 this year, and I could cry most days when I think of how fast time has gone. But instead I pray I showed him well the best way to survive, the only way and that he goes into the world and shows that same love to everyone he meets. I have no doubts that God will finish the good thing he started in this child he blessed me with.
God made me a mother before he made me anything else, and I am thankful for that.
I challenge you all to love and nurture life today, human or animal or plant doesn’t matter just love the life around you. Love it to truth and then watch it be set free in that truth. It’s worth it.
Linda and her twins 
an old photo but one of my favorites of my babies and I 
mothering is a call for all ages
Shannon R. Hess 