Moms all over the world are wondering…am I enough? Do I look good enough? Do I have enough? I struggle a lot with the latter.
I love being invited over for dinner. I enjoy combing Pinterest for recipes to try out on my hosts and a gaggle of strangers (iffy move, right?) I like concocting something fancy I normally wouldn’t make for just me and my husband. I am an extrovert and parties and cooking for strangers doesn’t bother me.
The real anxiety kicks in usually an hour or two before I head to the party. My mind races. You didn’t make enough. You’re gonna look awfully stupid when you run out of that potato-raisin-goat cheese stuff. No one will get any leftovers or take-home plates. You shoulda made more. In my desperation to not look like a fool who didn’t consider people’s noshing needs beyond tonight’s meal, I run to the store and buy more ingredients. I would rather show up with a 50-gallon drum of my potato-raisin-goat cheese stuff than look stupid should the chow line run dry. In my eyes, I’ll never have enough.
Do I Have Enough?
As I write this article, the Coronavirus has most of us quarantined at home. If you’re anything like me, you scan your pantry and refrigerator daily, taking inventory of what needs to be replaced the next time someone nominated from your household ventures to the grocery store for supplies. 
I will admit, the dinner-party-panicker in me has dreamed up many awkward possibilities that have me contemplating buying a little more bread, milk and toilet paper than I know I should. I know I’m on a low-carb diet, but what if all hell breaks loose and I said ‘no’ to all that elbow macaroni that was on sale? But I resist. I know I will have exactly what I need when the time comes. Not because Food Lion or Publix has what I need, but because God does. He manages heavenly storehouses and reassures us He will always supply.
“Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (Matthew 6:25-27 NIV)
Do I Measure Up?
Maybe that I’m not enough thought kicks in when you’re trying to make a deadline for work, get to a soccer game, have dinner ready, help with homework and spend quality time with your husband at night. You’re balancing work dinners and play dates, personal training sessions and girls nights and left wondering if it’s enough. Am enough for my company? Am I enough for my husband? Am I enough for my children?
You are enough! Your are capable. But just because you can and are able to be super-mom doesn’t mean you should. Sometimes we don’t feel validated in all that we’re doing because we’re simply doing too much. Take some things off your plate so that you can find the beauty in each day, so that you can witness the joy you bring to your company and your children.
What About the Mirror and the Scale?
If you’ve had children, more than likely your body has changed. You’ve got stretch marks and a pouch that just won’t leave. You’ve been trying to lose the baby weight for years but the scale just won’t get there. Your body parts aren’t perky like they used to be and a sneeze might mean a change of clothes. And to top it off, you see other moms on Instagram that seemingly bounce right back after giving birth. Am I Enough?
You are! This isn’t Instagram, this is real life. Your body may have changed, it grew another human, of course it changed! Those stretch marks represent something beautiful that happened on the inside of you.
Don’t mourn your old body. Learn to appreciate and accept the new body, the one that contracted and delivered life!
You Got This!
In life, so many of us sweat our abilities to provide. We assume we are responsible for providing an endless supply of whatever it is others are asking of us: love, tolerance, support, or take-home plates. This quarantine has stretched many of us to the limit: we have been asked to be mom, breadwinner, teacher, supply manager, grocery-getter, keeper-calmer, and to still look good despite desperately needing a haircut and a hug. You dear woman, are enough. You are the daughter of the King, the wellspring of love and life from which our souls are continuously replenished. God has all your tomorrows covered.
In times of projects, playdates, parties or pandemics, we can walk confidently in knowing that we are not the be-all and end-all when it comes to supplying in either situation. Let your Heavenly Father be the supplier of heavenly things; the things you need to be full and well in this life and the next.
