All-Sufficient Christ

By: Sara Wall

I sit here and ponder over the last several years and marvel at how swiftly the time went. I never knew I’d be here; looking back over the joys, struggles, and trials of motherhood. I thought it would last forever. But God is faithful and brought me through the stage of motherhood with little ones.

All too well I remember a certain feeling; the feeling of inadequacy. Overwhelming. Choking. That’s how it felt. How can I raise these little ones for You? I’m too weak, too impatient, too inexperienced, too imperfect. I fail way too often.

So I dragged myself through the days in a fog of inadequacy; joy only a shadow out of my reach. Trying to measure up to the perfect mom. Did she exist? In my mind she did, and I wanted more than anything to be this model of perfection. But I was haunted by this one word: inadequate.

What did the word mean, anyway? I looked it up in the Webster’s dictionary and it defined it as: not adequate; not enough or good enough; insufficient.

Yes, that was me. Insufficient. My picture should’ve been in that dictionary!

I desperately wanted to raise my children for the Lord, but how was I to do it if I didn’t have what it took? Oh, was it ever frustrating; this feeling of inadequacy!

Time went on as I pled to the Lord for wisdom to be the mother He wanted me to be.

God was not silent when I cried out to Him; He was not blind to the flowing tears of an inadequate mother of little ones; this insufficiency of mine was very obvious to my Heavenly Father.

Then the Lord began to show me His sufficiency. ‘And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.’ Colossians 2:10. And Colossians 2:3: ‘In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’

I was complete in Christ! And in Him was all the wisdom and knowledge a mother could ever need! The answer was in the all-sufficient Christ.

What did the word sufficient mean, anyway? I looked it up in the dictionary, and this is what it said: enough to meet the needs of a situation or a proposed end.

Yes, that was Christ. Sufficient.

Here I had been striving in my own strength and failing time and time again. The revelation that I had everything in Christ brought me freedom from my inadequacy.

I promptly exchanged my inadequacy for Christ’s sufficiency and the joy of mothering returned! No longer was I chasing a shadow of perfection, but rather, casting myself at the feet of the All-Sufficient Christ, Who was more than Adequate.