After one particularly bad parenting day a couple weeks ago, I was talking to a mom friend on facebook chat once the kids were finally sound asleep. As we were finishing up the conversation, I wrote:
As we strive toward godliness, fail, and strive some more, let us always remember that His strength shines through our weakness, and He sustains us and gives us power over sin.
In response, my wise friend wrote:
Amen… Also remember that His mercies aren’t just new every morning; they are new every moment. You don’t have to wait for a fresh start.
Her statement blew me back for a moment. I was overcome by that beautiful truth, by our gracious God. She’s absolutely right. I don’t have to wait for tomorrow for a fresh start. His mercies ARE new every moment. The truth of her words has stuck with me like soft, reassuring whisper in my heart ever since.
Many days, the honest truth at the end of the day is that I haven’t been a godly wife or mommy. There are days when I have given into my flesh all day long. When I have not spoken to Ambrielle with kindness in my heart and in my tone. When my discipline has been fueled by frustration rather than love. When I have been lazy and chosen to whittle time aimlessly rather than serve my family actively. When I have ignored my husband’s requests to do some small task for him simply because I didn’t feel like it. When when my overall posture is facing ME.
Need I go on?
It’s easy, at the end of those days when I’m confronted by the reality of my failures, to believe Satan’s lies. They resound in my mind like a beating drum growing louder and louder:
You’re hopeless.
How awful. You’re THAT mom.
Wow, who has that kind of heart toward her kids?
You better pretend today never happened and make sure tomorrow isn’t like it.
You’re better than this. What’s wrong with you?
Today was a waste. An absolute waste.
The overarching refrain I hear Satan speak over me is: This day can’t be redeemed.
Too often, I believe those lies. In the middle of that day, when I’m confronted by my ugliness, I believe the day is lost. All hope is gone. I better just plug on and get through it, because the day is already wasted. Might as well get it over with and hope tomorrow is better.
But the voice of Truth tells me something very different. The voice of TRUTH says:
In Jesus, you have hope. You can change.
In those moments, you are THAT mom. But He is THAT Savior. And your identity isn’t in the kind of mom you are; it’s in whose child you are.
You DO have that kind of heart toward your kids. But the heart God has toward His children is one of perfect love, and He long to give you that heart day by day.
Today DID happen, and God uses even your worst sins and failures to sanctify you. You can’t do tomorrow on your own—but He can give you strength to make tomorrow different.
You aren’t better than this apart from Christ. In fact, you’re a sinner condemned to hell. But in Jesus you’ve been made righteous and given a new heart and a new life.
No day is a waste. Every moment of every day is used by God, for His glory, for your sanctification, whether you can see it or you don’t. He’s much greater than your failures.
The overarching refrain the voice of Truth sings is: His mercies are new every morning; redemption has already come.
What if I really believed his mercies are new every morning? Better yet, what if, like my friend said, I really believed his mercies are new every moment? That at any point in time I can stop, come before His throne of grace, repent, experience the joy of His forgiveness, and march forward with a renewed heart and mind the rest of the day?
What if, instead of raising my white flag to the enemy, believing the day is lost, I raised my white flag to my Redeemer, believing the day can be redeemed?
What if, instead of listening to that no-redemption lie, I looked my flesh and the enemy in the eye and said, “WRONG! God’s mercies are new for me, right now. His grace has already covered the sins of this day. His power has already given me victory over sin. His strength has already sustained me to press on. I choose His mercies.”
This, this is the truth I need to cling to, particularly on those especially fleshly days.
I don’t have to wait for tomorrow.
I don’t have to wait for a fresh start.
I don’t have to live under the guilt and condemnation of the enemy
Christ has come. Victory has been attained. The Holy Spirit dwells in me.
God’s mercies there for me, right here, right now, every moment of every day.
Therefore, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14)
No matter what your Monday brings, no matter how many times you fail to worship the Maker of the universe as you should, no matter how hopeless your day seems, remember this:
His mercies are new every moment.
You don’t have to wait for a fresh start.
Forget what lies behind, and strain toward what lies ahead.
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