The Cabin of Grace

Being a mom is a full time job, quarantine or staying at home does not change any of that.

We are a family of 5. That makes me a mom of 3 and this mom loves every one of them. I am a woman who leads a ministry with her husband (full time) and is passionate about that, and whose wonderful husband truly is a very sacrificial person and loves serving others. I am a foreigner in the nation I live in, though they have accepted me as one of their own citizens for a few years now. I’ve learned to speak the language, have learned to love this culture, and have “almost” accepted all of the things I can’t change in all these years of living overseas.

I am a foreign national, a world citizen, a woman who was born and grew up in a European nation, served as a missionary in East Africa as a single woman, found love in North America, married the Costa Rican I found there and embraced his nation as my own. My travels have taken me through Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, South America and Australia all for the sake of the person, the Truth I love and want to share with the world – Jesus.

When I first became a mom I also lived in a foreign land, the beautiful nation of Nicaragua. Though my husband is from Costa Rica and knew the culture, I was still learning to adjust to my new life in Central America.

With a little baby on the way, we packed our bags and 6 plastic boxes and waited patiently for Tica Bus (Busline in CA) to take us to our new home. New adventures were around the corner, a new home, a new ministry to be part of, a new family to embrace. So many memories of those first years.

God was with me every step of the way in becoming a mom, provided for every single detail, despite the fact that I never had any of my kids in my homeland (The Netherlands). All three were born in Central America and I have never regretted it. God provided, He gave peace about the decision every time.

Now our oldest is almost 18. I still can’t believe it has been almost 18 years since we lived in Nicaragua and walked into that brand new little hospital in Diriamba. I must have been the only patient that night as I was well taken care of and our little one was the enjoyment of the nurses with her bright blue eyes and puffy thick blond hair.

Being a mom than was easy, I wasn’t leading a ministry, I only had one little one to take care of, we lived in a small 2 bedroom house and thus easy to keep clean.

Now 18 years in, 3 kids later (ages 17, 15, 10) and leading a full time ministry, being a mom is very different.

Moms are always busy, and it is not because they always want to be, life just happens and there are things to get done.

During this mandatory “stay home” rule from the government I thought; Finally I will get some time to do certain things, but I have yet to find the time to do them.

The first few days I had to come off this mayor energetic sprint in which we had to make sure all things for the ministry were taken care of before I could ‘stay home.’ Once that was done and I finally had my first full day at home, I never sat still for more than 20 minutes.

Woke up, showered, drank coffee, got kids settled with school work, put in a load of laundry, swept the floor, took clothes out of the washer to put them in the dryer, gave my kids a snack, mopped the floor, sat down for a moment only to realize that it was now almost lunch time. So I did that, ate lunch, did the dishes, cleaned up, took the laundry out of the dryer, folded the laundry, cleaned up my desk in my room (which had been a months long project on my list), drank coffee, spend the rest of the afternoon squeezing about 300 lemons, put them in ziplock bags so we can freeze the juice and have vitamin C juice for weeks (maybe)!! Then it was time for dinner again so did that, washed up, and finally around 7:30-8:00pm sat down on my bed ready to ‘rest’.

If you are a mom, you can relate, right? Today is day 5 and I realized moms in quarantine are still moms, still do all that needs to get done, don’t really get to ‘slow down’ or just sit and do nothing as some might think quarantine is.

Life is different, for sure, having kids at home all day is different for me, they are very responsible with their school work, which helps as they are also a little ‘older’. I am so blessed, it gives me the time to get the ‘other’ stuff done, but now I just want to rest.

I write all this to say; it is time to rest! How about you, if you are a mom, are you finding your rest?

If you are like me with so many things going on all the time, how do you find this rest? What can we do to find our new normal but also find deep moments of resting our heart and soul in the Lord.

Friends, this is a new season, none of us were ready for this, none of us were expecting this, but here we are. Here I am and find myself having to re-think how I do things, among the many things I normally do.

Last year the Lord allowed me to build this little Cabin. I call it my Cabin of Grace. When I go there I am entering into this special place with God. It is where I meet with Him, where I talk to Him about the deeper things. Where I receive grace to go through the things I walk through.

This momma needs some time in her Cabin of Grace this week. There is a gift that rarely gets given and that is the gift of time. Especially as a mom, this is a precios gift that when it is given, you tend to fill it with what needs to get done.

This season we are in right now can be filled with working from home, and trust me I can fill it with many important and good things, but this week I am going to take this gift that so rarely comes, to enter into the rest I believe the Lord wants to give me, but I am quite sure He wants to give it not just to moms, but to all His people.

So when you get a moment this week, I invite you to receive this gift of time and rest…