As a mother, do you feel like a failure by the end of the day as you lay in bed thinking back over your day?

There was one thing that I just couldn’t wrap my head around when my kids were growing up.  I often lived as if everything depended on me.

I found it easy to slip into the habit of mothering by ‘self-alone’ instead of totally tapping into the Holy Spirit’s presence in my life.

Your success or failure in mothering your kids all depend on you doing everything by God’s grace alone.

Here are 6 things you need for mothering by grace alone. It was through my own struggles as an imperfect mom that I learned to walk closer to God.

I hope these will equip you to live your day with your kids by grace alone.

1. Raising Your Kids by Grace Alone

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8,9

We are saved by grace alone through faith and if we take these two verses into our daily life as women raising children, it is by grace alone and faith alone that we will ‘successfully’ come through this season of our life.

What we most often forget is, that it is not of ourselves – it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

2. Living by SELF and Bombing Out!!

Though this verse is primarily discussing salvation, I have found these verses to ring true in my life whether I lived by grace, through faith or not.

Too often, I lived in my own strength, through faith in SELF. And. Bombed. OUT!!

I often felt unqualified instead of equipped!

How many days (too many) did I live in my own efforts at mothering, child-training while balancing homemaking, homeschooling and bailed out in being a wife? Too many to tell!!

3. Mothering by God’s Grace

I would encourage you ladies today to mother your children – not of yourselves, it isn’t all the ‘things’ you do to ‘have it all together’, it isn’t works. It isn’t in how well your house runs. Now, don’t make excuses and do a poor job, just know that through God’s grace – and through faith in Him – He will help you to get the job done. You can’t boast or pat yourself on the back because your home is spotlessly clean today and the children perfectly behaved. It is only by His grace that you had the ability to carry all this out and tomorrow may be another story!!

4. Relying on God’s Grace

Rely on God’s grace and have faith in Him that just as you are (are you?) saved by grace through faith; that He will use your life as a testimony of these truths to prove Himself to you and others watching – that He is to be glorified, that it’s not of yourselves – and it isn’t because of works (all your housework) so that your boast is in Christ Jesus.

5. How Your Kids ‘Turn Out’ is ONLY by God’s Grace!!

Put out of your mind that ‘how’ your children ‘turn out’ has to do with you!!

I have heard and read too much about how children turn out as adults has to do with how their parents raised them. While that is true to a certain extent, our children have their own FREE WILL. There are NO grandchildren in Heaven!! By that, I mean that your children are saved by grace through the shed blood of Jesus the same as you are. They are NOT saved because you are saved.

If your children ‘turn out’ to walk faithfully with Christ when they are grown, it will have absolutely NOTHING to do with you but ALL to do with Him. If they ‘turn out’ to abandon the One you taught them to have faith in, you still will continue to glorify Jesus as He gives you grace, moment by moment.

6. Take Courage Dear Mother by His Grace Alone

Take courage, dear mother, as you raise your children for the Lord. Look to Jesus for grace alone and remember that it doesn’t have anything to do with you but with Him. When the going gets tough as soon as your feet hit the floor in the morning, pray for His grace and for Jesus to live through your thoughts, words, and actions.

We probably all tend to live by SELF-Alone, how can you improve your walking by Grace Alone this week, month, and year?

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