For the parent who needed this reminder tonight.

You’re doing more than you can see.

I know you don’t believe me. I know you go to bed at night replaying the moments you’re not proud of and completely overlooking the dozens of ways you showed up that no one will ever know about. I know you keep measuring yourself against a version of motherhood that exists only in your imagination.

But here’s what I see.

I see the small sacrifices that nobody is counting except for me.

– Jacqueline Whitney

I see the way you choose softness when you’re running on no sleep. I see the prayers you whisper over them when they don’t know you’re praying. I see the way you make their world feel safer than the world actually is. I see the small sacrifices that nobody is counting except for me.

You’re not failing them. You’re loving them in a way they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. The warmth of being yours is shaping them in ways you can’t measure. The patience you keep finding, even when you don’t think you have any left, is rewiring their understanding of love.

You don’t have to do more. You don’t have to be more. The fact that you’re worried about whether you’re doing enough is evidence of how deeply you care.

You are exactly the parent these specific children need. I gave them to you on purpose. You’re enough. You’ve always been enough.

Jacqueline Whitney is the author Held: A 50 Day Devotional For Parents and All That You Deserve.