Mom Guilt vs Life Manifesto: Which Wins?

How often do you wrestle with Mommy Guilt? A friend of mine asked that on facebook recently, and the question made me gasp. Because for one, she’s a new mom and she has literally dozens of years of Mommy Guilt ahead of her, poor thing. And because for another, I’ve been mired in it myself quite thickly for the past several months. Me who literally wrote the book on Rocking Ordinary.

Do you suffer from Mommy Guilt? I see those hands, those wiped tears, those groans. Of course, you do. We all do regularly (daily?). We brought it home from the hospital, packed in between the formula samples and newborn-sized diapers. One box of ready-to-reproduce-rapidly Mommy Guilt, with a side of stress eating.

God didn’t give us that package. It comes from someone else.

God gave us tremendous influence, untold impact when He ordained we would rear the next generation. There’s seriously no greater power than molding and shaping little people into adulthood. This sacred task is so powerful that it draws us into spiritual warfare on a regular basis.

Hense, the Mommy Guilt burden we lug around with us on a regular basis.

My friend Mary knows that. As a mentor for “re-story’d” women and a trainer of wordsmiths, she’s constantly encouraging others to boldly live their unique mission. During the week-long writer’s intensive I attended, she pushed us to overcome our personal fears and doubts to boldly pursue God’s best in our writing ministries.

To leave the burden of guilt and fear and inadequacy behind and pursue God instead.

So she encouraged us all to take this exercise seriously. We were to set aside time to pray over our personal life manifesto, write it down, and live it out.

A Mommy Manifesto

As I worked through my own, I was struck by how unique and different every woman’s manifesto should be — a reflection of the unique talents and 0pportunities and ministries we each represent. That excites me.

When I finished my manifesto, I was shocked at how it described me as a person more than me as a writer or me as a mom. It encompassed so much of my heart that it includes all the ways the Lord is working in me right now.

And really surprising, it mentions “rest” prominently before I realized that is the focus of my year.

Wanna’ see it? Here’s a picture of mine. I have it hanging over my desk right now. And yours will be much different — truly exciting!

One year ago, I wrote Rocking Ordinary because I believe — I know — that each one of you has extraordinary influence every single day. That’s the opposite of Mommy Guilt. It’s your Mommy Manifesto.

Don’t believe me? Take a few minutes (or like me, a few days) to work through these brainstorming exercises, discuss it with your spouse or friend, and pray over the potential you have right now.

Then write your own Mommy Manifesto. You’ll be amazed at how God is using you every ordinary day.

Be sure to share your manifesto with me! I’d love to see it!