As a mom, I often struggle between the space of what my kids need and what I am able to give. We think of moms as superheroes! In many regards, we are. We endure many sleepless nights, carry life into this world like goddesses, and carry the weight of each of our children’s futures on our shoulders. We are stronger than we ever imagined, but we aren’t superheroes. Moms are people. We lose our temper, we get really sad, we can be impatient, even unkind, and most of all, there are limits to what we can handle. We cannot carry the weight of the world on our shoulders without eventually crumbling.

As a young mom, I struggled with mental illness but funny enough, it took me a really long time to see it and name it. I just kept powering through, looking for another way to self-help myself to perfection. I didn’t know another mom who was struggling the same way.

Our culture paints parenting into pretty boxes. We want to assign hard and fast rules to how to do this thing the right way. Parenthood is full of beautiful moments; it’s easy just to want to capture those. The reality is that every age and stage of parenthood comes with new joys and different challenges. Making matters more complex, we don’t parent in a vacuum; we also carry our own responsibilities, dreams, goals, relationships, and more. Our kids are being influenced not just by us but by the media, mentors, teachers, friends, their interests, and more!

Let’s layer on the fact that families often all look different. The units we are shepherding sometimes are being shuffled between parents, step-parents, grandparents, bio parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, and more! The bottom line is that parenting is complicated.

The encouragement I have been meditating on as I’ve felt like I’m not enough for my family is that God asks us to be faithful, not perfect. I am called to be faithful to keep showing up for my people, praying, loving, and serving them trusting that God’s love will cover my many failures.

If you are struggling with the feeling you are not enough as a parent, here are some truths you can lean into: