Just Keep Knitting
- Alisen Bigerton
- Dec 17, 2024
- 2 min read
“The thread holding these two stories together is that success only came with multiple attempts and after enough time.”
“So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up.” Galatians 6:9 NLT
I drop my hands in disgust and close my eyes to avoid looking at yet another failure. Head tipped back in frustration, I wonder why I keep expending effort on something that seems to have no shot at success. Finally, I throw away yet another failed attempt. After some time, purely out of spite, I cast 80 new stitches onto my needles and eventually manage to create a hat. (Dramatic, I know.)
Fast forward some years, and at work I am now charged with caring for multiple tiny people who are every bit as irrational and strong-willed as they are adorable. After being spoken 7,000 times, the words, “No, no, don't push please. Let's say ‘Excuse me.’”, have all but lost their meaning and become a random string of syllables uttered without thought. Then one day, instead of pushing her way past another child, my work-daughter says, “‘Scuse me”, to the best of her 15-month-old ability and side-steps carefully past another child to where she wants to go.
The thread holding these two stories together is that success only came with multiple attempts and after enough time. In either scenario, I could have easily given up, easily had nothing to show for my efforts. Not such a big deal with knitting, but problematic where guiding children is involved. Giving up would have been detrimental to all my work-kids and robbed me of the joy I felt seeing my efforts come to fruition.
I know it's easy to feel like the stage of motherhood you're in will never end, like you're accomplishing nothing, like your efforts make no difference. But the word of God promises that there will be a harvest as long as we continue the work of planting, and our God always keeps His word.
Action steps:
Go to God when you're weary and let Him sustain you.
Remember you are not alone and it's ok to lean on your community. (Shameless plug: Motherhood Meets Faith offers a wonderful, private online community just for moms like you and me. Join us!)
Written by Alisen, mom of 1