Do you ever get discouraged? Do the anxieties of motherhood, or just life, have an exhaustive way of beating you down? Do you find yourself claiming verses like, ”He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increases strength.” (Isa. 40:29) This defines endurance and endurance is based on hope!
I am a princess mom and grandmom and I understand a little bit about the lesson of endurance. If not by virtue, by age and experience! It comes with great promise, but it takes pronounced fortitude and focus on the goal, regardless of circumstances. The goal is greater than any distractions along the way.
Before leaving for the jungles of Panama, I was reminded of a verse given to me by a seasoned missionary that said, “if I had run with the footmen, and they had wearied me, then how would I contend with the horses, and if in the land of peace, where I trusted, they wearied me, then how would I do in the swelling of Jordan? (the swelling of the Pucuro River!) (Jer. 12:5)
Would I be able to endure what was ahead of me?
When I get over-whelmed, I remind myself of Elijah, who stood against evil and was hunted down, but he was faithful to the end or John the Baptist who was imprisoned for his stand on divorce and remarriage, yet remained faithful to his death.(I Kings 19 and Matt. 11:11) Luke endured with Paul until the end. (II Tim. 4:11). Christ endured until the end on the cross…
As moms, do we live as soldiers who are in the most critical spiritual warfare ever waged,
or as a civilian in a time of peace, prosperity, and pleasure?
“And let us not be weary in well-doing:
for in due season we will reap, if we faint not.”
(Gal. 6: 9)
“Do not pray for tasks equal to your strength, but for strength equal to your tasks.”
Phillips Brooks
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
