Letters to Peregrinus #24 - On Freedom from a Mother’s Regulations Through Life With Christ

A rewriting of Colossians 2:6-23

By Mary Edmonds

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught (possibly by your own mother), and overflowing with thankfulness; for when you are overflowing with thankfulness, there is no room for bitterness and resentment, which are planted by the Enemy.

See to it that no one takes you captive through superficial images and worldly expectations of a perfect mother with a perfect family. That is not of Christ.

For in Jesus Christ, all the fullness of God (who is our perfect image of Father and Mother) became human, and you have been given that fullness in Christ who is greater than any pressure you feel as a mom. In him you were stripped of the earthly identity and expectations, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

When you were dead in your sins and in the idea that you had the power and ability to achieve perfection on your own, God made you alive in Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code of the worldly expectations of being a mom, with all of its dos and don’ts, and stress and anxiety; he took it away and nailed it to the cross. And having disarmed the Enemy, with his lies and manipulation, Christ made a public spectacle of him, triumphing over the Enemy by the cross.

Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or wear, or what you dress your kids in, or what you let them dress themselves in, or what womens group or moms group you’re a part of or not a part of, or what activities your kids are in or not in. These are a cloud over reality; true reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in putting on a show or worships perfection disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about the life they want you to believe they are living, and their pride puffs up with idle notions. She has lost connection with the Father who gives her life and strength.

Since you died with Christ to the ways of the world, why, as though you still belong to it, do you submit to its rules: “Do this. Don’t do this. Be that. Don’t be that.”? Such rules indeed have an appeal and an appearance of wisdom, with their self-adoration, their illusion of simplicity, and their harsh treatment of the body, mind and soul; but they lack the ability to overcome earthly expectation and temptation.

Read Colossians 2:6-23 (NIV) here