Hello and welcome to our Blog Anniversary Party! We are celebrating our first full year of blogging and we are doing it with friends like you and this sweet writer!
Today, I want to introduce you to Tenesha. This sweet girl is so precious to me! Earlier this year, Tenesha invited me to write for her blog on a monthly basis. That opportunity has sparked a fun friendship between us. It is amazing how I can feel close to someone that I have never met in person. God just has a way of bringing His Body together!
Join us as Tenesha shares her heart about motherhood, womanhood and why she started her own blog!
ll Grace and Guidelines ll
There’s this stigma us mamas like to carry around; it’s this idea that we need to be perfect. We spend nine long months prepping and planning as we wait for our first little one. We follow Instagram moms very closely in the hope to somehow catch a tip or trick from their seemingly perfectly posed lives. Us moms enter into motherhood with the idea that we will be close to perfect and don’t need help. Our “baby” Pinterest boards include organic homemade baby foods and patterns for hand sewn clothes.
Your heart is in the right spot mama; I totally get it.
But, what happens when you can’t meet your own expectations? What happens when you are just so exhausted you finally cave and buy nonorganic and processed items? What happens when you can’t achieve that Instagram mom status? What about the realization that being a “stay-at-home” mom isn’t realistic for your current situation?
Like many women I became fed up with unrealistic expectations and comparisons a woman inflicts on herself. Each journey we walk has been uniquely woven by God’s own hands for His purpose; if we could only rest in that truth how much more fulfilling our journey would be!
I created The Beauty Within as a way to encourage and inspire women in all seasons of the heart. As the title suggests, my hope is to encourage each and every woman to explore the beauty within herself and whatever that entails. Each one of us have a unique core with unique desires and a unique purpose – quenching that is to ignore the purpose God has placed in our hearts!
Too often us women put borders around our life as a strict guideline we believe our lives should look like.
For example: If we are stay-at-home mothers many of us assume that the journey must include staying at home (duh), homemade everything, homeschooling, continuous cleaning, and our own needs put aside. Of course, some of that is great and should be implicated at certain times but what if that’s not entirely what God wants for you?
I mean, I don’t know about you but continuous cleaning is not my thing and the only true homemade form I will rock is that of a craft. It turned out, however, that my crafts are what began my journey as a work-at-home mom! Something I would have never known if I had been pursuing what I thought I should be doing instead of what I knew I should be doing.
One word my friends: GRACE
Grace ladies, grace. We will fail, we will tread water, we will move forward, and we will thrive with God’s help. Give yourself the much-needed grace that God graciously extends towards you daily. You were not made to be perfect; you were made to need the one who IS perfect and that’s Jesus. Remember that our only expectations should be with resting in God and who He is. Everything else is fluff and minuscule compared to what God has in store for each of us.
No more should we ever define what motherhood should look like outside of the guidelines the Bible provides for us.
What ARE the guidelines for motherhood and womanhood that we should look for?
• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Forbearance
• Kindness
• Goodness
• Faithfulness
• Gentleness
• Self-control
Everything else – every expectation – is not necessary if you are practicing the fruits of the spirit listed above! Stay home or don’t stay home, do everything homemade or don’t, homeschool or public school; as long as you are making each decision with the attributes listed above… should you really be carrying any guilt?
Do not allow what you “think” you should be doing define your life and purpose because I have news for us all, God does what He wants with our lives and sometimes (oftentimes) it looks nothing like what we envisioned.
This is my passion over at The Beauty Within; to live out the life God has intended for us.
So, what unrealistic expectations are you holding over your head today? What do you need to let go and give to God?
Tenesha is a self-proclaimed lover of foo foo coffee, comfy clothes, and anything floral – while married to a handsome firefighter EMT and mother of one crazy toddler. She loves to connect over at The Beauty Within and her Instagram page where she shares daily encouragement, makeup tricks, and fun DIYs!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thebeautywithin31
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Website: www.thebeautywithin31.com
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