Diana, or Wonder Woman as she is generally known, was raised to be the strongest warrior by her aunt, the sister of the Queen of an isolated and secret island of Amazonian warriors created to protect mankind. The movie, which portrays Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, has been lauded by many for being a female led superhero movie. If that wasn’t enough, Gal Gadot, who has had military experience fighting in the Israeli army, shot intense fight scenes for the movie when she was five months pregnant.
10 months ago we were gifted with a tiny wonder of our own. Our little daughter, with her determination to do things her way, was born after much prayer and patience. There was an unsaid agreement between my husband and I that we were going to raise a warrior.
While it is poetic to say that we are raising a warrior, the actuality of it is tough.
A while ago my daughter learnt to put her hand on her ear and in her baby voice say “hello” (which sounds more like “hollow”). Now she picks up random objects, including my phone, and says “Hello”. Also, if she drops something or falls, she says “uh oh”. While it is entertaining to watch, I used to wonder where she learnt all this. Finally, I realized that she was mimicking the person she spends the most amount of time with – me.
This is scary because, look at me! I don’t want my daughter to become me! Far from it. I want her to be smart, wise, strong, independent, and fierce. I want her to learn from my mistakes and be wise when she makes mistakes of her own.
This is a challenge when I think about how ever since I have become a mom, I have only dealt with feelings of failure every day. This is a struggle and as I interact with more and more new moms, I am beginning to see a trend. There is a lot of judgment being thrown around – whether it is how the baby is fed (breast or bottle), how long a mother chooses to nurse her child, whether a mother leaves her child to resume work, or quits work to raise that child, there is so much drama following every mother's decisions (maybe this can be said of women in general).
Mothers, I challenge you – stop judging the decisions of other mothers. Stop comparing yourselves to other moms. As I write this, I am telling my soul what I wish someone had told me earlier – stop worrying.
You are the real wonder woman, raised by God to be a warrior! Your weapon is not what the world fights with. 2 Corinthians 10: 4-5 says this,
“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
One of the biggest arguments we fight as new mothers is that we’re just not good enough, or that we’re not doing a good enough job. But, He who knit us in our mothers wombs, and formed our children in our wombs and homes has chosen us to be mothers – and I mean both biological and adoptive. While today what we see is only a glimpse of what we will become, we are chosen, with all our imperfections, to raise warrior children. So stop listening to the false argument that you’re not doing a good job. Sure, we will make mistakes, our children will fall off the bed, they will fall sick, and some of them may even leave the earth before us, but that doesn’t mean that we are failures!
While I know I am a young mom – young in the sense that I’ve experienced this only for a few months – I know that God has grown, taken care of, and protected my daughter through all the mistakes I have made (like being unable to prevent my daughter falling off the bed twice in one morning). I am pretty sure as she gets older, she will be exposed to my short temper, my bad taste in chick flicks, my preferences in music, my cooking, my opinions, and all those other “bad” things that could potentially make me a “bad mom”. But none of that will stop God from redeeming her and refining her, from ensuring she becomes who He created her to be.
Stop worrying and start enjoying the gift God has given us. More than being a successful mom in the world’s eyes, I am discovering that being grounded in Christ and the gospel is the only guarantee. Reading God’s word and prayer are two of the most important and powerful tools any mother has. Whether your child turns out “alright” by the world’s standards or not, God is in control, and He will carry us safe to shore.
My daughter’s grandmothers are very quiet. I have heard the kind of prayers my mother-in-law has prayed for her children and while she isn’t Gal Gadot, she is a wonder woman because I have seen her prayers work wonders. My mother has prayed and handled two extremely difficult children through some tough phases of life, and while she didn’t serve in an army, she has battled this life with prayer and God’s word. I have read and know of mothers whose greatest contribution to their children was modelling warriors of God – and that is what makes mothers Wonder Women.
So each of you mothers, whether you are a newbie like me, a seasoned pro, or a grand-mom, Happy Mother’s Day to all you Wonder Women.
Photo by Tanaphong Toochinda on Unsplash
Awww!!! Happy mother’s day Wonder Woman!