Growing in Grace As a Mom

Recently I had the opportunity to interview my friend Katrin about what God has been teaching her lately in life, marriage and motherhood; specifically how she is bringing her family with her on her journey with God. Below are a couple of excerpts from our time together. You can read the full article here.

Katrin speaks about learning to trust God…
Submission wasn’t easy at first, especially for someone who liked to be in control. “It was hard at first because I was so used to allowing my fear to be the source for many of my decisions. After many experiences of choosing to trust God by saying no to the fear it became easier. Then I began to ask the Holy Spirit for other areas in my life that I was allowing fear to keep me from trusting God. It’s a process of obedience and trust in who He is for me.”

And about growing in grace as a mother….
Katrin shares, “When you are in the place of saying, ‘God, use whatever You want to in my life in order to teach me’, He will do that. And for me He used my children to teach me, and He’s still using them to teach me.” A lot of what she learns from God about relationships comes through her kids. “I’m with my kids all the time, so He can be teaching me all the time. There’s benefit for them and there’s benefit for me. It goes beyond what my understanding of being a mom is. God is blossoming it into something I never knew parenting could be.”

Filling Up on Grace and Peace

Do you ever wish you could stop by a station that had unending reserves of grace and peace? Similar to a gas station, you could pump yourself full of grace and peace, filling up to overflowing with enough of each to power you through every encounter, need and situation. What if you can do that, with the never-ending resource being God Himself?

“Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” (2 Peter 1:2)

I also like how the Amplified translation says it:

“May grace (God’s favor) and peace (which is perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied to you in [the full, personal, precise, and correct] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” (2 Peter 1:2)

Often we quickly read over this opening greeting from Peter. But recently when I read it again, it stopped me in my tracks. I began to really think about what it says. Grace and peace will abundantly be ours when we know God and His Son Jesus more and more. When we decide to follow Jesus, He gives us the full resources of Himself, but often we either don’t know it, don’t believe it, or don’t fully know how to receive and walk in it. The more we truly know and believe His goodness, mercy, right motives, grace, love, salvation, holiness, tenderness, character, etc., we will increasingly possess more grace and peace in our lives. Those characteristics will be multiplied in our lives. And this will come from the pure (full, personal, precise, and correct) knowledge and understanding of God; that He is good, and He is for us. Therefore we do not have to fear anything that may happen and we can always walk in peace, extending grace to ourselves and to others, as we trust Him. Isn’t that amazing? The truth that when I know and understood the full character and being of God, I can walk with total peace and grace.

We are all in the process of getting to know God more. It is a journey that takes time, just like the forming of any meaningful relationship. I encourage you to keep going this week! Keep seeking God. Keep getting to know Jesus. Keep praying, keep asking, keep reading, keep talking to God. And I know you will find yourself walking in more peace, more grace, and more of every good thing as you do.

So…
+Are you growing in knowing God and His Son Jesus?

+What hinders you from knowing God more? Fear, doubt, laziness, apathy, believing lies instead of truth? Take some time to search your heart and let go of the things that are a hinderance.

+What habits can you begin to cultivate that will help you get to know God more?

Prayer
God, thank You for giving us Your Son Jesus. Help us to know You more in every way. And thank you for Your promise that as we know You, an abundance of grace and peace will be multiplied in us, filling up to overflowing in our hearts and extending to those we meet. Amen.