A mother’s heart labors over her children. Pulling, tugging, coaxing, dragging, pushing, begging…all in the name of love.

Those of us who look, we see our children not just as they are, but as they can be, might be one day. Something beautiful, something great. A work of art. That life that was once knit together in our womb, fearfully and wonderfully made, beautifully made in the image of God, we look with longing at it and wonder what the Master Weaver might make of it.

It’s sweaty work–manual labor of the most intense kind because it requires more than just body. Mothering demands body, soul, mind and heart. And when the work doesn’t pay off…when the pulling and tugging and coaxing and dragging and pushing and begging and praying don’t seem to change anything, we can be left empty, exhausted, worn down. Wanting to just give up. Weary.

The weariness visited me last summer. In a season of searching for the gentle words and not finding them, two months of morning sickness, two weeks of vertigo, and a miscarriage that shook my world, I found myself helpless and hopeless. Helpless because it had truly dawned on me that I had no power to change the hearts of my children. Hopeless because God wasn’t answering my prayers to change them. I felt like giving up. I didn’t want to pray anymore. Not because I stopped loving God, but because I wondered if my prayers truly meant anything to Him. I was sweaty, empty, exhausted, and worn down.

So I quit. Just for a season I stopped The Voice in my heart that tells me the Way to go. As He tried to minister to me, I turned the other cheek…not because I didn’t love Him, but because I did. I knew the right answers to my faith problem, but I didn’t want to hear them again, didn’t want to admit that the reason God wasn’t answering my prayers had more to do with His desire to change my heart than it did not changing my sons.

I felt Him calling me to get up and follow Him one more time…but I wan’t sure that I could.

“On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fisherman had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’ And Simon answered, ‘Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.’ And when they had done this, they enclosed  a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.’ For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken.”

~Luke 5:1-9

Peter had worked hard all night long at his job, trying to catch fish, and hadn’t caught even one. Sweat, calloused hands, dirty, hard, long hours of labor to make a catch to no avail.

In those days, I imagine an empty net meant an empty stomach, empty table, empty mouths. And maybe, for Peter, an empty heart. I can almost hear him thinking, “all that work for NOTHING! Wasted effort, wasted time. I should just quit.” Sometime after this wasted fishing night, the Savior of the world found Himself in need of a platform … a safe place to stand and be sheltered from the crowds who were pressing in on Him, desperate for a word drop of water when the voice of God had been silent in their land for four hundred years. He looked around and found a simple fisherman, with a simple fishing boat, and a simple fishing life, who was simply weary, and asked for shelter. He taught the soul hungry people for a time, and then told the weary man Simon Peter to cast his net in the deep.

Can you imagine Peter’s response? Can you picture him, head in hands, eyes tired from lack of sleep, and heart weary from the weight of failure, answering the man Jesus?

“Lord, we have been out here all night. We’ve worked our fingers to the bone trying to provide for our families, trying to take care of them and give them our best. We’ve given our all, all night long and it hasn’t been enough. We’re tired. And we don’t want to try again. Not even one more time. But because you seem to be something special, we will. Just this once, and don’t ask us to do it again if you please.”

You know what happened.

Peter’s choice to blow on the flame of hope one last time nearly sank his boat with success. He knew at once that he had been in the presence of greatness, and knowing it, repented, left his nets, and followed Jesus.

Friends, I can’t promise you that your next act of obedience will produce the fruit in your children’s hearts you’ve been craving. I can’t promise you that following Christ, even just one more time, will bring immediate change or smashing success. But I can promise that holding out that flicker of hope, just enough to propel your feet forward in one more step of faith, matters to God. He sees you, and He knows what it will require to pursue your heart. He’ll pursue it with reckless abandon, just because He loves you that much. But in the same way that He loves you, the same way He’ll move all of heaven to chase your heart and make it His, He also loves your children. When they break your heart, they break His. When they run away from you, they run away from Him. When they reject your love, they reject His. When they refuse to walk in obedience to you, they refuse to walk in obedience to Him. He hurts with you.

But His plans for you, and your children, are good.

Will you make a commitment with me today friends?

Can we stand together today, unified by Christ and our love for our children, and covenant with the Lord that we will never, ever give up on our children? And can we likewise covenant with the Lord that we will never give up on His ability to move in the hearts of our children, in spite of us?

If so, proudly proclaim your commitment to the world by sharing it with at least one other person today and asking them to hold you accountable. Maybe even share your decision to never give up on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever your friends and their friends come together. Let’s pray that our commitment catches on and spreads like wildfire.

Consider liking our new Facebook page, and then sharing these words on your Facebook wall?

“I believe that God’s plans for me are good. Therefore, I commit today that I will never give up on my family, and I will never give up on God’s ability to move in their hearts. With His help, I will take the next step of faith even when I feel I can’t, because He is the God of miracles. If you’re ready to make this commitment too, copy and paste this on your wall. @Hope for the Weary Mom”

(where @Hope for the Weary Mom is an in-comment link)

Or these on Twitter?

“I will never give up on my family, & I will never give up on God’s ability to move in their hearts. #WearyMom”

I believe God will meet us and fill our nets as we trust Him enough to cast just one more time.

Get in the boat with me?

Don’t forget to download your free song from solo pianist David Nevue! And get 15% off of his CDs when you buy them at his site! Use the word “MOB” at checkout!

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