"I should be enjoying this more; my lack of joy proves I'm failing at motherhood."
How it sounds in your head: Everyone says these are the best years of your life, but you're exhausted, touched out, resentful. You love your kids but you don't love this, and the gap between what you feel and what you're supposed to feel makes you think you're broken.
"Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."
-- Nehemiah 8:10Source: cultural sentimentality and religion's lie that godly mothers are always joyful, equating hard seasons with spiritual failure.
She's told to cherish every moment while simultaneously drowning in laundry and tantrums. Her lack of constant joy feels like proof she's ungrateful or unfit.
Hannah was so miserable she couldn't eat, wept bitterly, and was accused of being drunk when she prayed. She wasn't joyful in the moment—she was desperate. God didn't rebuke her sorrow; He answered her prayer and gave her Samuel, who anointed kings.
I REFUSE the lie that my lack of constant joy means I'm failing. IT IS WRITTEN that the joy of the LORD is my strength—not the joy of motherhood, but HIS joy. I'm allowed to find it hard without being disqualified from His love. IT IS WRITTEN that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, and that includes condemnation for not cherishing every moment. I am the righteousness of God in Christ, and my worth isn't measured by my emotional state. The BARAK blessing is on me in the hard seasons and the easy ones, because it's covenant, not circumstance. I am loved in the struggle, and the Father meets me there.
The Father isn't disappointed that you're not glowing with constant joy—He's the one holding you in the hard, the way He held Hannah while she wept so bitterly they thought she was drunk. He doesn't rebuke your sorrow; He strengthens you in it and writes glory through it.