You Are Still Worth Being Loved, too. Motherhood Did not Cancel Your Womanhood

by Kopper Thatch

A The Kids & Me Contributor

There is something that happens quietly when a woman becomes a mother — especially when she carries the weight alone. The world starts calling you “Mom” so loudly that sometimes you forget there was a whole woman there first.

Before the responsibilities.

Before the exhaustion.

Before the schedules, the bills, and the constant decision-making.

There was a woman who had dreams about her life. A woman who imagined love that felt safe. A woman who laughed without calculating the cost of tomorrow.

And somewhere along the way, survival took over.

You became strong because you had to.

You became responsible because no one else stepped in.

You became everything for everyone.

But strength can slowly convince you of something that isn’t true.

It can make you believe your needs no longer matter.

It whispers things like:

I’ll focus on me later.

Right now, it’s about my kids.

Love can wait.

I can wait.

But here is what I want you to hear today, and I want you to really let it land:

Motherhood did not cancel your womanhood.

You are still allowed to want tenderness.

You are still allowed to want companionship.

You are still allowed to want joy that belongs just to you.

You did not stop being worthy of deep love the moment life got complicated.

In fact, Scripture reminds us that our worth was never based on our circumstances in the first place. 

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ~Romans 8:38-39

God’s love did not decrease because your story took a different path than you expected.

His tenderness toward you did not change, even as life became harder.

If anything, the way you show up every day, tired, determined, loving, trying, reveals just how much strength He placed inside you.

Your children are not watching a perfect mother.

They are watching a resilient woman.

They are watching someone who keeps going.

They are watching what courage looks like in real time.

And one of the greatest gifts you can give your children is not perfection.

It is permission.

Permission for them to see you take care of yourself.

Permission for them to see you rest.

Permission for them to see you receive love.

Permission for them to see that your life did not end when theirs began.

Permission for them to see a woman with inner strength, a woman who trusts that her future still holds good things.

You are not behind in life.

You are not disqualified from happiness.

You are not too much.

You are not too late.

You are not too complicated.

You are a woman who has lived, loved, stretched, sacrificed, and survived.

And there is still so much life ahead of you.

So much laughter ahead of you.

So much peace ahead of you.

So much love ahead of you.

But before any future relationship, before any external validation, before anything else — remember this:

You are worthy now.

Not when life slows down.

Not when your kids are older.

Not when you finally have time.

Now.

Exactly as you are. And that woman you were before motherhood? She did not disappear. She grew. And she is still right here.

_________________________

Related encouragement from Pastor Loran Livingston at Central Church:

https://centralchurchcharlotte.subspla.sh/78dz2t2