Mothers of young children are tired. All the time. I was thinking about this after talking with my sister, who is the new mom of a beautiful 3 week old boy (post to come, I promise), today. I am luckier than most because sometime before Katie was born, Adam took over nighttime duty when, in my sleep, I picked Isaiah up out of the bed by his feet and shook him, yelling, "Stop kicking me!" Yeah, I'm not nice at night.
But even still, I nursed babies all through the night. And I have woken up to clean up blowout diapers and puke on the carpet. I know tired. It's not even just the nighttime stuff. It's all the millions of little things all day that you do for everyone but yourself: wiping noses, pouring cereal, fixing "owies," etc, etc. The brain cells that are sucked from you as you play Ponies or Legos for hours, sing songs and talk incessantly to build language skills in your baby, or painstakingly decipher what your toddler is so emphatically trying to tell you. It's knowing how important the job you are doing is even as it is the most tedious, frustrating, exhausting thing you've ever done.
I've been thinking about it a lot (as I mentioned in this post). Apparently I'm not the only one. I stumbled across this post at Diapers and Divinity while reading this post at Chocolate on My Cranium, and they both resonated with the scripture that's been bouncing around in my head since that night that I wrote about my New Year's Resolutions: Doctrine and Covenants 64:33 "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great."
How to be not weary? I'm don't know exactly, but I'm pretty sure it requires more prayer and faith than I've been having lately. In any case, I am "laying the foundation of a great work." At the very least (which may be my best for now) I can keep plugging along, hanging in there. After all, "out of small things proceedeth that which is great." I can bless my family even if I am imperfect. And, as my grandpa used to say, "I can sleep when I'm dead." Or maybe he said, "I was born tired." Hmmmm . . . either way, it's past my bedtime.
2 comments:
Thanks for that. That was our theme in Seminary my Senior year. I love that scripture.
I love that scripture.
The only way I know how not to be weary with raising young children is to live long enough for them to grow up!
The weariness is still there, but in a different form as the required effort and "duties" change. Overall I enjoyed the time when my kids were young and needed me for everything, even though I was constantly tired. But I love having teens and older children!
Keep in mind that the small things you do now really will make a difference later! Your current weariness will eventually pay dividends...
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