Becoming...

In my inbox this morning I was greeted with a precious message from Heather; mother of 6, dear friend to my family, and a sister in the faith.  Her words were full of encouragement and have stuck with me throughout the day.

"...You may be a mother many times over but you will never BECOME a mother again.  I pray that you capture this in your heart...be still.  Know that He is God..."  

There are many stages of becoming the Lord allows His children to experience.  I clearly remember a few other key becoming stages in my life.  Becoming a college student, becoming a wife, becoming a missionary in Haiti.

The movie, Becoming Jane, a story written about life events that led to the development of author, Jane Austen has always been quite intriguing to me.  Although I am intrigued by this movie, I must confess I have not yet watched the movie.  I prefer girly films like Father of the Bride, the accents and quick speaking in movies like Pride & Prejudice tend to make me quite sleepy.

What would it be like to have a movie made about all of our times of Becoming?  Would we be surprised by certain parts of our lives that made the movie, which led us to who we are today?  Or perhaps we would be surprised by those moments we thought were huge in our process of becoming, but it turns out they didn't matter after all.

What a gift it is to look back and see the events in life that led us to different places of becoming.  But, oh how easy it is to miss the moment when we are in the midst of those transitional stages, our becoming stages.

Heather is not the first, nor will she be the last mother who shares with me how necessary it is to embrace this special time of Becoming Mom...

It is my desire that the Lord would work in my heart to heed the wise words He is giving others to speak into my life.  I hope to learn what it means to take advantage of the time I have to Be Still, just me and the Lord and the precious life forming inside me. Instead of feeling like I must go go go because once baby comes everything will change.  

I hope to embrace each moment of pregnancy.  Growing and expanding out of my favorite skirts and t-shirts.  Tiny gifts of baby towels and onesies.  Yes okay, even the heartburn and fatigue can be embraced.

I remember being in children's church many moons ago and my teacher told me he had something to show the class.  He had a surprise.  This surprise was something we had never seen before, and something we would never see again.  

As we sat on the edge of our tiny little chairs he pulled out a peanut from his pocket and cracked it open.  He removed the tiny nut from its shell and explained that this was the first time anyone had ever seen this nut.  Then, before we realized what happened he threw the nut into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed.  No one would ever see the peanut again!

We are each in a spot we have never been before and we will never be there again.  How are you doing in your time of becoming?

Psalm 46:10 "Be still (cease striving), know that I am God."