Let This Mind Be In You

God bless all you mothers who love/loved being pregnant. I am not one of them. The only things I loved about being pregnant were letting my stomach hang out and eating whatever I wanted from months 5-9. The supposed exciting months (1-4), when you make that first announcement and everyone is so happy for you, were THE WORST. I was puking continually, peeing continually, dizzy, exhausted, peeing again, irritable, crying over everything and peeing some more. My hormones were an absolute mess. I felt confused and ugly and my chest felt like my bra was holding up a couple of rocks or maybe boulders. Ya, it wasn't a fun experience for me. Unfortunately, it was an amazing experience for an acquaintance of mine who happened to get pregnant at the same time~ and she always made sure I knew it. At times it can be so very hard to love someone with a pure heart, the way that Christ loves. It's even harder when you are going through something that seems horrendous to you, and that person just rubs it in.......day after day after day. I was so nauseated with my pregnancies that I didn't even want to talk to people for fear that if I opened my mouth, surely I would puke. I didn't want to move. I just wanted to sleep, yet every time I came to church I heard-"isn't being pregnant amazing?" I have so much energy!" I think I'm just GLOWING! I wish I could be pregnant ALL the time". Mind you, this woman was fully aware of how sick I was. Believe me, I had asked for prayer on several occasions. It can be very dangerous to mess with the mind of a hormonal woman. There were times I could feel the anger boiling inside me, with fleeting thoughts of strangling the life out of her (just kidding....but maybe a little serious). Most of the time though, I just wanted to hide and cry. I would beat myself up inside, wishing I could be just like her. "WHY CANT I BE LIKE HER????" I even questioned God and wondered why on earth He would put me in a ministering position yet have me running to the bathroom every two seconds to pee or throw up. "How can this possibly help people Lord?" 
I'll be completely honest here Ladies. I never came to an "AHA" moment with a changed heart full of love and compassion for this woman. It was a daily battle for me for three years, until we moved away. After pregnancy, her delivery was perfect, her babies were perfect, her marriage was perfect. Her children were born with full heads of hair. They sat up first, walked first, talked first, slept through the night and even ate like adults. Not one bit of food anywhere on them. Then I'd look over at my daughter, with baby food smeared all over her little face and bald head, and I just wanted to cry and crawl under the table. 
Why do we do this to ourselves Ladies? Why do we always compare ourselves to others or worse, let the things others do rule our lives and steal our joy and peace? God tells us that if we love God's Word we will have great peace, and nothing will offend us (Psalm 119:165). He also tells us that if we compare ourselves to others we are not wise (2 Corinthians 19:12) and most importantly of all, He tells us to love each other FERVENTLY with a pure heart (1 Peter 1:22). When you are pregnant and hormonal all you can think is " how on earth am I supposed to love this person?" God answers for us-"let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5). Even if we have to beg God for help to love as Christ loves on a daily (or minute by minute) basis, that's exactly what we need to be doing. So any ladies out there who are hormonal, or pregnant and miserable, I'm right there with you and understand! Any ladies who are having a hard time dealing with the worst person in the universe right now, again, I'm right there with you but more importantly so is Christ. He not only had to deal with the worst of the worst, He died at their hand, and He did it all for us~out of pure love. What a beautiful standard to go by. 
So, don't be comparing yourself to others and wishing you had that "glow" but pray for His glow, His mind, His love~every single day. And here's a crazy thought to ponder....what if WE ARE that person that drives someone else crazy and gets on their last nerve? But that's another Devo for another day. Today~ let His mind be in you. 😉☺️