Why your summer won’t meet these three expectations

In May, I start thinking of all the things summer will be: slower, sunnier, fun-er…really, all the -ers. I dream of Creamsicles and starry nights, staying up late and road trips. I think of all the memories we’ll make and the essays the girls will be able to write in September about what they did this summer. However, the more summers I live through, the more I realize something…

There are three expectations summer can’t meet.

For starters, summer can’t bring us peace.

Summer feels like it’s all about relaxation, reading a book poolside, and eating a slower dinner just because. And yes, summer is all these things, but it cannot provide the peace we crave.

You see, in our hearts, even with a slower pace, we still feel the rumblings that all is not well. We feel we should do more, try harder, and quit unhealthy habits. We realize we’re not the moms we’d like to be and that our pace is overwhelming our souls.

Summer can’t give us the kind of peace we crave.

Only Jesus can bring peace.

Only His peace satisfies—the peace that calms down our spinning souls and harried hearts. Rather than seeking peace from summer, we must find it in our Savior.

So how do we get His peace?

When we have Christ in us, how do we tap into what is already ours? We externalize what bothers us and bring those anxieties to God (Philippians 4:6–7). Then, we allow the truth that Jesus is the Prince of Peace trickle down from our heads to our hearts.

Summer can’t bring us peace, but there’s something else summer fails to do too.

Summer can’t make us someone we’re not.

Our hope is that, regardless of our personality, summer will make us chill and fun-loving from June to August. We believe that even the most tightly-wound of us will convert into silly, sunny, and laid-back people. And yes, summer can bring a change of pace, but that doesn’t mean we change who we are. We are hard-wired with a personality and a temperament that summer doesn’t change by rolling into town.

You see, in our hearts, we want to be who we’re not. If we’re Type A’s, we wish we could be more relaxed and less rigid. If we’re introverts, we wish that we were more willing to put ourselves out there.

Summer can’t make us someone we’re not.

Only Jesus can transform us into who He created us to be.

Only He can take all of our strengths, weaknesses, passions, and dreams and channel them to meet the world’s gaps as we bask in joy that comes from living as who we most truly are. Transformation is not found in the sun— it’s found in the Son.

So how do we become transformed?

It takes two to transform, to become sanctified: God and us. God is always at work peeling back layers of hurt, opening our eyes to who we are, convicting us in a gentle way, and reminding us of His love. But we must work too by reading our Bible, asking for a desire to know Him better, worshipping no matter what, and serving with the gifts He gave us.

Summer can’t bring us peace or give us a personality transplant, but there’s one final thing it can’t do.

Summer can’t carry the weight of our worth.

Summer feels like a measuring stick for how good we are as moms. It provides plenty of opportunities to show off our ability to manage logistics and make memories, i.e. summer camp, craft-time, and beach vacations. And yes, summer can be absolutely amazing in it’s ability to create memories, but a finite season cannot carry the weight of our worth. All the magical activities we plan will never make us feel like Enough.

You see, in our hearts, we believe that, if we can just create the perfect summer full of memories and productivity, than we’ll be Enough. This is the longing of our hearts, but our worth can’t be found in a season.

Summer can’t carry the weight of our worth.

Only Jesus is strong and mighty to be Enough for us.

Only He is strong enough to be the anchor of our souls. Because Jesus is enough, we can rest, embrace grace, and know that we’re secure in His almighty hands. Our worth is not found in how we organize a season, it’s found in the arms of our Shepherd.

So how are we assured of our worth?

As Heather Davis Nelson writes in Unashamed, “Jesus stands up for us, He stands for us, and He stands in our place. We are worthy of love and belonging not because we have made ourselves worthy but because God has loved us into His kingdom.” We’re valuable because God made us in love and paid a high price to bring us home. (The FCC requires that I tell you that I’m an Amazon Affiliate, which means I earn a bit of commission on each sale. But don’t worry there’s no added cost to you!)

In May, I start thinking of all the things summer will be: peaceful, personality-changing, and the perfect canvas to prove I’m mom-of-the-year. But summer can’t do any of those things. Yes, it’s amazing. Yes, I love it. But only Jesus is our peace. Only Jesus transforms. Only Jesus is Enough.

Summer is slower, sunnier and fun-er than any other time of year. But let’s let summer be summer, and quit asking it meet three expectations it cannot.