What Do Squished Grapes and Motherhood Have in Common? – Becky Kopitzke
By Stacey Stone
When we use the phrase “as a Christian” we tend to paint ourselves and others into a corner that Christ never intended to push us into. But when we add to that and say “as a Christian mom” that takes it to a new level and author Becky Kopitzke says in her new book The Super Mom Myth: Conquering the Dirty Villains of Motherhood that it is a painful level to try to reach. “I think we forget grace,” Becky explains, “We forget how God knows that we are but dust and we are flawed people.” And, as she goes on, Becky explains that we have been that way for a long, long time.
“I mean ever since the Fall, Eve started this whole deal but, if I were in her shoes, I would probably eat the apple too. We forget how fallen we are and we are spending our lives trying to be more like Christ. But that’s why it’s called sanctification, not perfection.”
Even as moms, particularly Christian moms, we strive towards a perfection in parenting that we were never promised.
“We are not instantly perfected the minute we are saved,” shares author Becky Kopitkze, “We spend our lives becoming more like Christ; our whole life is about running the race and in the end I will be in glory with the Lord and I will be beautiful and shiny but right now, I’m kind of a squished grape.”
So how, as a Christian mother, can a woman know that how she is right now is okay and recapture some of the joy that she felt at being a mother earlier in her life?
First, Becky points out that God knows that we are flawed and that makes it okay.
“God knows that about me and I think we expect ourselves to be perfect in ways that God doesn’t even expect of us,”
explains the author of the Super Mom Myth: Conquering the Dirty Villains of Motherhood, Becky Kopitzke. And as far as recapturing that joy that you felt early on about becoming a mother, even before you gave birth or adopted, Becky shares her wise words towards that goal,
“Think about that joy we had even before we became moms and we just couldn’t wait to be a mother!” She continues, “Then we get muddied up with the anger and the worry and the fear and the exhaustion and then the kids have personalities of their own and things become kind of messy. And we lost that joy that we thought we would have in motherhood… it’s still there! It’s still there and God wants to show it to us”
Ask God today to show you the joys of motherhood and then to help you show them to your family as well.