Many of us would cringe if others knew what lies beneath in the hidden spaces of our hearts.My son just returned from camp this past weekend and I always look forward to the 'after camp talks' that come where they unpack for you all of the exciting details as well as the sharing of their souls with no hindrances. It's in these moments I love being Mom. For in this space I get to listen as my child takes his heart out of his chest and open it up wide for me to see. I press pause on life in these moments, no rushing to what's next or glancing at my phone, just listening intently to the pulsing within his chest...the struggles he's forging to overcome as well as his dreams that are beginning to take shape. We all need these moments...Yet breathing becomes a struggle when we spend our hours rushing here and there, hiding and covering up what's beating us down. Sometimes running and striving is a way we hide. To be fully known and fully loved seems impossible.So as we're raising our kids there's a temptation to choose one or the other...to be fully known or to strive to be fully loved, but in reality it's not one or the other it is within the bundle of both we're able to find the peace that comes in this beauty. As parents when we choose to live a life uncovered and real our children find freedom too. We breathe life into their lungs when we show them its good to be fully known and loved by God.I once thought mothering was a race to win rather than taking a thousand breaks to breathe. The days I've spent bent half over trying to catch my breath wondering how to keep on going, wondering if they could hear me sobbing in the shower drowning out the hard.I wanted to be more for them...more patient, more loving and more understanding than I was mustering up. I wanted to never lose my cool and always have my anger under control, to keep it all together rather than blowing out words of frustration. To live through their struggles as mountains to run up one side and down the other instead of feeling like giving up when I needed to give in. It felt like there would be more than enough time to get this thing right and more than enough kids to try it out on.  Enough moments to do this thing over and try again to do it better. And then as I was in the midst of it all I smacked right into a truckload of Grace my soul was really needing to find. Enough Grace to cover all of our messes and hidden hurts, the closets and spaces crammed full underneath every empty space needing to find enough Grace to embrace to hold us  when our world seemed to be falling apart. Grace has a way of telling us we don't have to spin a new twist on our broken stories or try and find someone to measure our success. Grace writes a new story to our lives. It shows us the peace we can have when we are fully known and loved by God. And it's here we Mommas can serve our children from our tables of Grace as we sit and listen to their stories, unfolding our grace covered lives before them. This is where true heart healing is found in us all....where brave souls erect from brokenness and life lines become generations of heroes....right here in the surrendering of striving we find enough Grace for us all...more than enough for it all! So keep steady your Momma heart pursuing God's mother size gift of Grace every day so that you can set your tables full of the helpings of Grace needed for your precious families today and on & on...walk through this God blessed day knowing you are truly fully known & loved by God....(special thanks to word crafter and songwriter Tauren Wells for preaching this message...'fully known & loved by God')