"There are days of motherhood, long seasons even, that are quite laborious.  And if you are like me, motherhood brought about the first time you were ever really tested in this matter of laying down your life.  Took me a long time to realize that the things motherhood took from me while I was still resentful of it, was not true sacrifice. I would keep a mental tally of just how many bottoms I wiped, how many corrections I had given and just how long it took me to get school done that day. How many sermons I had missed at church, how much pregnancy changed my body, how I didn't even get any sleep at night. I didn't give those things, they were taken from me.  They were not given freely and willfully.

Sometimes daily, I still have to intentionally hand over those things willingly, not have them ripped from my hands that want to cling to them with a death-grip.  I want to give them gently, lovingly and freely, not see them as stolen from me.  That is real sacrifice and the kind that bears fruit."

i admire this blogger greatly, finish reading here:
http://www.nurseryofthenation.com/2014/01/motherhood-and-paradox-of-dying-to-live.html