By DR. LATESHA W. THOMAS

 

Kitchen Tune-Up

 

     “So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter. He endured the cross, ignoring the shame, for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat down at the right side of God’s throne.” – Hebrews 12:1-2, CEB

 

     When I was young, my dreams of motherhood were fanciful imaginations where I marveled over the sheer idea of becoming pregnant and caring for a little someone who needed me.  I marveled at the idea of someone depending on me to teach and nurture them. My imaginations were almost always positive, and the outcomes of what I envisioned motherhood to be were always happy.

 

     Robert Southey’s poem “What All the World Is Made Of” says little boys are made of “snips and snails and puppy dogs’ tails,” and little girls are made of “sugar and spice and everything nice.” Never in my wildest of imaginations did I fathom or consider that the boys would get dirty playing with snails and snip at you when you fussed about their muddy prints all over your freshly cleaned floors; or that little girls would possess spicy attitudes and sometimes be everything BUT nice!

 

     Over the years as a mother, I got to fine-tune my skills. I was unexpectedly blessed with my son eight years after the birth of my daughter. My initial take-off into motherhood with my daughter was one in which I hoped and dreamed of a new life with her; however, by the time my son arrived, real-life experience had shown me the marvels of motherhood. I now had history to look back on and an account of my blessings and lessons.

 

     I no longer view motherhood as a dream, but a journey of growth. Motherhood is the race that God has given me to run. Most runners train before the race, but this race is different. The journey of motherhood is one of faith. You take the blessing you’ve been given, and you run with it. You put aside the things that hinder you and cause you to stumble from being the woman God has called you to be before your children.

 

     Most often, it is the journey itself that teaches us these lessons. The journey molds you into motherhood as you go through rites of passage that could never truly be understood had you not decided to run the race by faith. No matter the shameful pitfalls, we learn to endure the race of motherhood, for the joy that we once imagined will also be laid out before us.

     Dr. LaTesha W. Thomas is owner and operator of PACE Synervations LLC, which is a private counseling, Christian life coaching and consulting practice; and she works as a full-time social worker with the Mississippi State Department of Health. LaTesha can be found at facebook.com/latesha.thomas.9; on her business Facebook page, PACE Synervations Counseling, Coaching & Consulting; and on YouTube and Instagram as LaTesha W. Thomas. You may also email her at info@pacesynervations.com.

Pro-Life Mississippi