If I could, I’d invite each of you to come over and have a cup of coffee with me (or tea, or water, or whatever you prefer). We would sit down on my comfy couch, turned toward each other, our drinks forgotten on the coffee table, excited that we had at least this limited time together. And we would talk.
What would we talk about? Anything we wanted to. As we sat facing each other and enjoying each other’s company, we might decide to discuss things that didn’t really matter, but were fun to talk about. Or we might choose to share what was on our heart right then—the things that really do matter.
I don’t know what you might share; I wish I could meet you in person to find out. But I do know what I would share. Since I can’t share it with you in person, you’ll have to imagine me sitting before you, looking directly at you and speaking from my heart. Because that’s what I’m doing right now as I write, even if you can’t see me.
And what I’m saying is this: You. Are. Enough.
You, with all your imperfections and memories of failure and your trying-hard-and-not-being-good-enough (and I, with those same things). You are enough for your children.
Will you let me prove it to you?
To start with, look at the picture at the top. It’s a picture of two quarters lying on my coffee table. Two ordinary quarters…except that if you look closely enough, you’ll see that they’re really not ordinary at all.
That’s because they were given to me by my eight-year-old daughter, Jessica. One sunny day not long ago, she told me she had a present for me. As I sat on the couch cross-stitching and enjoying a blessed moment of peace in the midst of a busy day, I could hear her humming quietly and cheerfully to herself as she carefully and diligently wrapped my present at the kitchen table.
A few minutes later, she came to offer it to me, and I put my stitching aside. I slowly unwrapped the abundant layers of brightly-colored wrapping paper to find…nothing. “It’s in there,” she assured me.
In the bottom of the wrapping, I saw a quarter. I withdrew it and thanked her. “There’s another one in there somewhere,” she said. So I turned the wrapping upside down and shook it. Another quarter dropped out. “Thank you, sweetie,” I said, smiling.
Then came the words that make those two quarters the most special quarters on the face of the earth: “They’re not much,” she said, her face quietly alight with love, “but it’s all the money I had.”
What does that precious story have to do with your being enough? Simply this: Jessica’s gift was more than enough for me not because it was fifty cents, which really isn’t all that big a deal in the grand scheme of things. Her gift touched me so deeply I will never forget it, and my heart will never fail to be warmed by it, because she gave all she had.
So do you. Every second of every day, you pour out your heart, your love, and even your very life for your children. Your gift to them is enough, not because of what you’re giving them, but because you’re giving all you have.
As you sit on my couch facing me and tears perhaps begin to fill your eyes, I reach forward and lay my hand over yours. And I tell you again, “You. Are. Enough.”
Yes, I know you’re not perfect. Yes, I know you’ve made mistakes and even sinned against your children. But being enough is based not upon your level of performance or the degree of perfection (what even is perfection, anyway?) that you achieve. It’s based on the fact that Jesus says you are enough.
Really? you ask, and I answer, Yes. Really. Let me tell you another story.
It’s the story of a woman who was beyond poor. Way, way beyond poor. In fact, all she had left to live on was a couple of coins. One day, she came to offer it all to God. And Jesus, who was looking on with His disciples, commended her to them. “Everybody else gave money out of their abundance,” He said. I paraphrased that part slightly. But listen to the next part of what He said, which I’m not paraphrasing at all: “But she, from her utter neediness, gave all the resources she had.”
Do you hear what He’s saying? That her sacrifice was precious to Him not because she gave much, but because she gave all she had?
Precious mom, you aren’t failing every day to do enough or be enough. You are giving yourself, and you are all you have.
Every day, you give enough.
Every day, you are enough.
Enough for your children…and enough for Jesus.
Mark 12:44—“For everyone cast (money) in out of their abundance, but she, from her utter neediness, cast in as much as she had—all her resources.” (MBT)