You’ve got a lot of good intentions.

In fact, you have a list a mile long of everything you want to do, everything you want to be. There is this definition of the perfect mom in your head and you are doing everything you can to live up to that image. But your list of things that you want to accomplish is growing, and the time you have seems to be stretching thinner with each passing day. You want to be that mom in your head, the one with the educational activities planned, weekly play dates accomplished, healthy lunches made, little screen time, plenty of exercise, quiet time mastered, and the perfect discipline techniques and reward routines mastered. You want to do it all. But instead you’re sitting there paralyzed by the endless expectations on that list realizing you can’t amount to all of them, so you just sit there, stuck.

Mama, is that you today? Are you stuck?

Maybe your stuck feeling looks a little different. Maybe things just aren’t looking the way you wanted them to look. Your kids aren’t following the expectations you have set before them. You can’t seem to juggle all the things on your plate. You have all these ideas and dreams, but you can’t make room for them. Things just aren’t working out the way you thought they would. Your marriage isn’t where you want it to be. Everything is stuck and you look around and realize you feel just as stuck as your life does. You’re burnt out on doing it all.

You want to do everything and you want to be everything for everyone…

But mama, you can’t do it all.

And mama, you don’t have to do it all.

I want you to think about that for a moment, I know that you know you can’t do it all, I am sure you believe that. You are sitting here right now reading this because you can’t figure out what is wrong with you. Why can’t you seem to juggle everything? You know this is an impossible task. Yet, you still try. Why? Because you feel like you have to. You feel like your worth is determined by how much of this list you can successfully accomplish. You believe that you aren’t good enough if your actions don’t line up with your expectations.

But mama, lean in close. I’ve got something to tell you…

Closer…

You. Are. More.

Did you catch that? Or do I need to tell you one more time?

You. Are. More.

Sweet friend, if I could squeeze you right now, I would. I would tell you over and over that you are so much more than enough. Not because of what you do or don’t do, you are enough because of the God who loves you. Jesus went to that cross knowing the worst thing you would ever do, and still died for you. He went to that cross knowing everything you would fail at, and still died for you. He went to that cross knowing it was impossible for you to do it all, and He still said you are more than enough for Him.

Mamas are so good at trying to be everything and do everything for everyone, often forgetting we were never meant to carry that burden. There is no way to be everything for everyone. We can just do our best with cultivating what’s in our hands for the people God has placed in our care. Sometimes we just need to take a step back and realize that all those things don’t matter as much as we make them out to. We are enough because He loves us.

You are enough on the days you accomplish everything.

You are enough on the days you get nothing done.

There is no perfect balance or in between. Because you are enough just the way you are. You don’t have to do it all.

Mama, you can’t do it all, and you were never meant to.