As a mother, there are many times—even throughout one day—when I am tempted to fear instead of placing all my trust in God.
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Questions pop up, at times assaulting my mind and heart: “Will my child still believe in God as an adult?” “Is what I am doing enough?” “What if it’s not? What will my life be like then?”
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This is where Paul’s words become like a balm for my anxieties:
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Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:6-7)
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When I mother with God and don’t get stuck in my own world, my own mind, and anxieties, there is true freedom, peace, and sometimes a recognition of the fruit he is already bearing through my motherhood.

I think of the carefully tended vineyard in the Gospel as my home, my family.

This is a particular part of the kingdom of God that I get to participate in here on earth. So much spiritual care, fine attention to detail, and prayers of protection have been given to cultivate it.

I want it to be as good as it can possibly be, so as to glorify the Lord.

Bad things can happen to it because of the brokenness in the world, which the Lord will prune and which he can heal. I can call upon his name, and he can give new life. A hope above all things is that God sent his only son to claim this vineyard and that it is already his.

My family can be, through God’s grace, an extension of his kingdom here on earth, if I would co-cultivate and cooperate with his grace. He desires for me to produce fruit alongside him, to labor in the vineyard for fruit that lasts.

He loves me and wants me, as his beloved daughter, to become who I am in the context of the life he has given me. He has chosen me.

So, I continue to ask the Lord each day to protect his vineyard, to fill it with his goodness, and to produce the fruit that he desires to produce through me. He will bear fruit that will remain.