Are you an Inadequate, Challenged and Unfit Mother, too?

It doesn’t matter how old you are, or if you are wealthy or barely able to make your payments, working forty hours a week, or staying at home, at some point every mom worries that she’s not the mom she hoped she would be; and not the heroic but tender jack-of-all trades mom her child needs. 

Inadequate. Challenged. Unfit.

Every mother knows these words. They are always lodged in our brain somewhere, ready at a moment’s notice to accuse. 

You will screw your child up. Your tendencies toward perfection or your laziness will ruin your child. You’re too uptight, or too laidback. You work too much or staying home with them has made them too dependent. 

Do these things sound familiar? Can you imagine being told these things by people you love and respect?

You’re still in school (you can’t handle this much responsibility). You’re too young (you won’t be smart enough to care for a child). You’ll disappoint your parents (you can’t be forgiven for this mistake). 

In the account of Gideon, THE angel of the LORD, (that is Jesus before he was a man,) came to Gideon and said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”

Do you know what Gideon said? 

“My clan is the weakest and I am the least.”

Gideon didn’t know who the Angel of the Lord was, but he certainly knew that whoever he was, he was confused if he thought there was any might or any warrior in Gideon. 

The Angel of the Lord replied, “I will be with you…” (Judges 6:12).

Do you see what happened? Gideon believed he was too small and too weak, but God said using the small and the weak is my specialty. 

We see inadequate, challenged, unfit. That’s not how God sees us. God writes in the book of Peter, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.” 

(Did you catch the words chosen, royal, holy and belonging?)

And the apostle Paul said, “God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” Paul did not say that we can do everything; he said God can do even more than we can imagine. 

Too often we listen to Satan’s army. We believe the whispers: “You can’t. You’re too small, too fat, too ugly, too whatever.” 

So we lay down and curl in a ball and say, “ok.”

Meanwhile God is over here saying, “Get up, mighty warrior!” 

We don’t need to stress out about being inadequate, challenged, and unfit mothers. We just need to remind God often that we are weak and that we need Him. Our job is to lay all the challenges before Him. Our job is to present our inadequacies with a plea for Him to provide despite us. Our job is to ask God to fill in the blanks that we are missing. We pray without ceasing and we daily bathe our children in the Word. 
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Dear Heavenly Father, Every day we are beaten down and reminded of our frailty. Bring us back to You, where we are loved. Where the hunger for your Word has faded, increase our appetite. In Your Word is truth and truth will free us from the lies that entangle and ensnare. Raise up mighty warriors and use them to shape a generation who will not fall away, but will carry the truths of the gospel. Thank you, Lord, for Your precious Word and the promises and guidance it offers. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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Author: Amber Swenson

​Amber has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Literature. She has authored four books; two of them (Bible Moms and The Whisper Theory) are in print and two (The Bread of Angels and Ladies of Legacy) are in various stages of publication. Both her Bible studies and her novels are written in an effort to bring single, married, young and older women to a closer relationship with their Savior Jesus Christ. She also authors a weekly blog found on facebook under "Bible Moms" or at "biblemoms.wordpress.com".