The other day I (Diedra) saw a For Better or For Worse comic strip depicting two ladies trying to sit at the table and have coffee and conversation. One lady had a toddler with her who needed one thing after another, and, as you can imagine, hardly a word was said between the two friends. In the end, the mother of the toddler gathered up her things, smiled and said, "We should do this again sometime." The other woman was just kind of staring at her with an exasperated look on her face. Sometimes I feel this way. It's not always easy to get together with other moms when children are at the stage of having so many needs, but it's important.
"Why am I doing this?!" You may ask, when you have to wake a sleeping baby, and it takes longer to get out the door than the time you actually spend at the play date (at least sometimes it seems that way).
I asked myself the same question and here is what I came up with: We need each other. We need to see other moms doing what we are doing--even if we don't get a lot of deep discussion time. We can learn things from each other. It's easy to start feeling isolated spending the majority of our time with one or more children. God created us to live in community, to sharpen each other, to love each other. Our society is so individualized that we begin to think nothing is wrong with doing our own thing all of the time. I struggle with this probably more than most, being somewhat of a homebody with a type A personality that keeps the kids on a pretty tight schedule, chaffing a bit when something throws it off. But I thank God for the lovely women of HBC and I commit to take advantage of this ministry- so that I can grow in community. Won't you please join me?
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Thank you Diedra for that LOVELY post. It was encouraging and very true. I often feel that way, I am much a homebody and like to stick to myself. I find though, as well, that when I do venture out with other moms I learn something new even if there isn't a deep conversation. Example: I often find that I'm very abrasive with my kids and I see other moms practicing patience and kindness and using gentle tones with there children and it pushes me to be more like Jesus and confess where I've fallen short of this. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post! :)---Francey