Written By: Jillian Lancour
I am a huge lover of musicals and one of my favorites is Les Miserable. The story of redemption is so powerful to me and the music so impacting, I can’t help but just love it. One of the characters, Fantine, is a young woman who has a little girl out of wedlock. The man who fathered the child left her and so she was completely responsible for taking care of herself and the child all alone. The story is set in the 1830’s and so Fantine not having a husband was a huge deal. She decided to send her child to live with an innkeeper and his wife, so she could work and send them money to help take care of her daughter, Cosette. The story goes that Fantine was forced into prostitution to make money to send her child. In one of the songs, Fantine is in a hospital, dying, and she sings a song about being with her daughter. In Fantine’s dying moments, her dream is that she is spending a normal day with Cssette.
Cosette, it’s past your bedtime
You’ve played the day away
And soon it will be night.
Come to me, Cosette, the light is fading
Don’t you see the evening star appearing?
Come to me, and rest against my shoulder
How fast the minutes fly away and every minute colder.
When I hear Fantine’s song and think about how badly this poor mother so desperately just wanted to be with her child, doing normal mommy stuff, it breaks my heart. She wasn’t focusing on her situation or her status, she just wanted to be mommy. On her death bed, she showed a gratitude to just be able to love her child. Too often, I take advantage of the precious time I get with my children. I have spent so much time focusing on the things I don’t have or the kind of life I don’t live, that I have sometimes missed the joy of what I do have.
It’s easy to forget the simple blessing of being able to tuck your children into bed, watching them play, being the one who gets to wipe their tears and cuddle them. I know that I have allowed outside distractions steal my joy and change my mood. Ultimately because satan is a thief and a liar, he wants nothing more than for us to be absorbed with other things and keep us from being attentive and joyful mommy’s and daddy’s. When I’m focusing on comparing myself to other moms on pinterest or instagram, it takes away from feeding positivity into my children. When I compare, I start thinking that my life is so far from perfect that I then feel depressed and that is robbing my children of a mother who is joyful and content in the blessings that God has bestowed upon her.
We need to stop letting envy and comparison into our hearts and homes. Proverbs 14:30 says that envy is rot to the bones; it’s not just a feeling that quickly comes and quickly goes. Envy stays and it starts impacting your spirit and emotions. And before you know it, your whole family feels it’s destruction.
I encourage you to go back to the old hymn Count Your Blessings and literally reflect and thank God for what He has done in your life. When we take time to be grateful for what the Lord has given, it starts to melt away the insecurities that comparison brings. God loves you so much and His promises never stop being true. When we seek Him with our full hearts and attention, satan doesn’t have a strong chance of swaying us towards negativity. Your attitude and time is precious. Your children want their mother to live in her truth and that truth is that no matter your circumstances, the size of your home, the amount of money in your bank account, or the number on a scale you are worthy, beautiful, and awesome. They believe that. God knows that. Live in truth and practice a spirit of gratitude. Count Your Blessings and don’t allow time to go by comparing your lives to others. You are uniquely blessed and that is something to find joy in.
~ Jillian
Uniquely Yours Ministries 