Marriage, the place where the masks come off!
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Clay and I have gone grocery shopping together for the first time in our marriage. One of the most important truths I have learned about marriage is that it is at its best when you learn the value of being on the same team, partners for all that life holds.
We have been through so many paths of life and we have learned the value of running together side by side through all of the crisis moments and sharing the burdens together.
But your faithfulness through all the seasons, learning to run, learning to work, learning to live by truth, not by the internet is such important work. Today, I had issues on my heart, fallacies and problems I see in culture and messages on the internet. I share them with you on the podcast.
But, in a memory from my home might encourage you to know that your work matters, it is not in vain. It does not have to be perfect to make an impact. Sharing a story from 2 different stories that I hope will encourage you. Maybe your hands are weary today as you pat heads, fold clothes, stir soup, and scrub dishes. But the work your hands are doing is priceless work, work your children will remember. Sharing from The Mission of Motherhood today. I hope it's an encouragement to you!
As I look back to the memories of my childhood, a strong image that comes to my mind is that of my mother's loving hands. I thought they were the most beautiful in the world.
In many ways, I still feel that way. Because I had been a premature baby, I was often sick with a variety of respiratory illnesses, including chronic asthma and occasional bouts with pneumonia. My memories of these illnesses, however, are mostly pleasant, because my mother would gently stroke my brow as she talked softly or told me stories and gave me her full attention. I remember feeling very loved from such focused attention.
At other times, when I fidgeted in church services, I remember my mother's hands massaging my own, pulling and squeezing each of my fingers as she quietly played finger games with me. As a young child, sitting next to her in a big overstuffed chair, I would watch her hands as she read to me from an oversized children's book. Her fingers would point to the enticing, heart-delighting pictures and turn the pages of the large volumes as we leisurely sat together and talked and read.
And during the period when I was having a recurring nightmare—one I still remember!—I especially remember the comfort of my mother's hands when she came to my bedside. She would take my hand in hers as she knelt to pray with me, soothing away my fears and comforting me as she entreated God to take all of my bad thoughts away.
Now, many, many years removed from my mother and a thousand miles away, these memories of my mother's hands are still strong in my heart. Those hands are now old and wrinkled and aching with arthritis, yet still, as an adult, I often wish she were with me to stroke my brow in the midst of illness and exhaustion, to massage away the frustration and boredom of tedious days, to open windows to the world while reading to me in a big old chair, and to take my hand in prayer and cast away all the fears of my life. The touch of a mother's hand and the power of a mother's love indeed has carried me through many moments of my life.
As I look to the needs of children of today, I am convinced they need the same things from their mothers that I needed—and received—from mine. They need not only the gentle touch of a mother's hands, but her focus and her attention on a daily basis. They need a champion and a cheerleader, someone who has the time and energy to give encouragement along life's way and comfort in dark times. They need a directive voice to show them how to live.
These needs are not frivolous demands. They're part of the way God designed children. And meeting those needs is not an option or a sideline for mothers, but part of his design as well.
Now, my mama has passed away. When I wrote this 12 years ago, I was in the midst of remembering the difference her touch and soothing affection made in my life. How I wish for just an hour when I would have her eyes looking at me with love, her hands squeezing and massaging my own, and her voice of approval and affection. Just one more time with my mama.
But the memories still carry me now, knowing that she had to make choices to give me these memories--choices to "see" me when she could have been distracted or busy with her demanding life. Today, I am going to reach out to all of my own adult children because I want them to have one more moment and touch of my mama love.
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