A Post for the Moms Who Made It Through

There are tons of great "Mommy Bloggers" out there. Seems like everytime I turn around a friend has posted a link to a wonderful blog with a letter from a fellow mom of toddlers. It usually fits into one of three categories: "Post for the Mom Who is Worn Out Like Me", "Tearjerker Letter For Moms About Loving Your Children", or "Moms Unite! The Outside World Just Doesn't Understand What We {moms} Are Going Through." They are all so well written, and provide a bit a salve for our poured out, dried out hearts that yearn for someone to understand us. We take comfort in realizing we aren't the only one who longs for the days when we haven't cleaned up three spills by 9:00 am and are still in sweatpants when we run to buy dinner groceries at 4:30 pm. And then a few minutes {or on a bad day, hours} later we log off our smartphones and rejoin reality. We get called to the kitchen to clean up that fouth spill and try to remember the article that told us these fleeting moments pass all too quickly. This post isn't for you moms.
This post is for those moms who aren't in this life stage anymore, this "tunnel of toddlerhood," or even childhood, or maybe the teenage years. This post is for the ones who've come out on the other side and can say, with absolute confidence, "You've. Got. This."
My generation, my fellow mothers, we are ACHING for women to come alongside us and cheer us on. To mentor us when our harsh words spill over onto our children in our frustration, to rejoice with us when our pride swells for our reading preschooler, to listen to us and cry with us when tears won't stop becuase we just can't seem to feel like we measure up.
Remind me of the working woman in Proverbs when my guilt for picking up an extra shift at work chokes me and tells me I'm failing my children by not being able to stay home. Text us scriptures and pray for us throughout the day because surely you remember how, despite our best efforts to make time for the Lord each morning, undoubtedly one kid woke up early and needed a glass of milk and then the other threw a fit about running out of Cocoa Puffs and before you know it we are running 5 minutes late for work and haven't had time to find where the baby hid our Bible, let alone read it.
Volunteer to love on my kids in the nursery because my weary soul really needs a moment of quiet to just heal. Please invite us over for a meal because I really need a break from all these dishes {and be gracious when my 6 year old refuses to eat the lovely vegetables you put on his plate and my toddler spills his water all over your table}. Understand when I turn down invites to fun ladies nights, it's not becuase I don't want desperatly to be a part, but becuase I can't stand to give up one more night with my family when I already feel like I miss out on so much. Can we do dessert after I put them to bed, instead?
And, more than anything, tell us we are loved, we are enough. And when we say "Thanks" and smile with that smile that doesn't quite reach our eyes becuase we know you are saying that to be nice, say it again, and again, and again, and squeeze us tight so that the love can't help but pour into our bones and refill all those empty places where we've given everything we had left to give.That love that you pour out into us, we need more of that transformational love in our lives.
We need women like you to help mommies like us make it through. Because we are tired, we are beat down, and we are ready to give up. No one else knows this struggle--except YOU.
"By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have LOVE for one another." John 13:35