Mommy Boot Camp

At the beginning of my pregnancy a friend of mine told me that pregnancy is mommy boot camp. So many times have I thought about that statement and I find myself once again today reflecting deeper on how true that is. To be a good mommy the most important aspect one should strive to possess is uniformity with God's will. Our children and our life are not our own. Everything and everyone belong to God. As a mommy God is entrusting me with the incredible task of helping Him form His children into the Saints he intends them to be. For 9 months pregnancy has been trying to prepare me to give up my ways and abandon to His ways and just recently did I really figure this out. The reason pregnancy is mommy boot camp is because it comes with many unexpected turns and opportunities to get in line with God's will not my own. In life we often have ideas about how we think things are supposed to go. The problem with that last sentence is the word "we" which really should be replaced with the word "God." It should read: In life God often (always) has ideas about how God thinks things are supposed to go. Our job is to discover His ways and abandon ourselves to them. I went into pregnancy with so many ideas about how I wanted things to go. I developed an elaborate birth plan about how I think my labor and delivery should go. There was a lot of "I" thinking. But over and over again God has given me opportunities to grow in trust of Him by having things be different than I planned them to be. I have a choice now, I can either kick and scream and be upset with God or I can say thank you because I know He knows what is best. My life belongs to him and so does the life of my precious daughter. I am thankful that my pregnancy has been what it has been because it truly is boot camp as I am learning more and more to be uniform with God's will. That uniformity will be the key to being the holy mother I pray I can be for our daughter.