Motherhood

Yesterday was my last Mother’s Day with both boys in high school, because our oldest graduates in just a couple weeks. Being a boy mom (or a mom of teenagers), you never know if they’ll take a moment like this seriously or if they’ll try to make you laugh, and yesterday they chose the latter.

As we sat together wrapping up the day, Nate said to them, “Let’s each list 3 words that describe Mom”. Their mental wheels started to spin, and they exchanged grins. The first few adjectives they immediately came up with were:

Female

Maternal

Motherly

Minority

Motherhood is such an adventure! 

I was asked to share my heart on motherhood for a few minutes yesterday in church, so I’ve attached the link here if you’d like to listen in. The morning message begins at 39:35, starting with our pastor’s introduction, followed by our women’s ministry director’s portion, and then my portion.

Our women’s ministry director speaks openly about the lies we tend to believe as moms, and it’s a heart-check session!

Here’s a brief summary of my outline: Motherhood is about being, not doing

Be invisible with your Father 

(Matthew 6:1-18)

Be in step with the Spirit 

(Galatians 5:25)

Be increasingly less so Jesus is more 

(John 3:27-30)

Happy Mother’s Day, and I hope this encourages your heart!

Dead or Alive

Being just two weeks away from Halloween, more skeletons are turning up as lawn ornaments on my daily walks through our neighborhood. Bones dangling from green tree branches and skulls peering out from the grass have earned the term decoration. Death resurfaces, becomes normalized, and gets celebrated.

And death can resurface in our spiritual life, Colossians 3:1-11 tells us. Remains that have been buried, because they’re old and dead, rear their ugly head. Skeletons in the closet creep out to the front yard and become socially acceptable, even celebrated:

Immorality

Impurity

Passion

Evil desire

Covetousness

Idolatry

Anger

Wrath

Malice

Slander

Obscene talk

Lies

Racism

Elitism 

Legalism

Any of these that may have once been a part of my way of life, my culture, my natural responses, my worldview, and my social status, belong to someone who is actually dead. If I’m raised with Christ, then that means I died, so I put these remnants of death in the grave, not in storage. 

Every Day

Memorial Day 

May 27, 2024

There’s no way a holiday can serve as sufficient consolation to the moms and dads, wives and husbands, children and relatives who have lost family members to the cause of freedom. But it is our day of recognition - a marker on the calendar to reflect on the personal losses that have been endured for the sake of nation-wide gains. 

To really sit in that proves just how much a “thank you” is inadequate and payback, impossible.  Whether we’re continuing our regular work rhythms today or stopping to celebrate with picnics and fireworks, both of these everyday American activities are reasons to be grateful for all of the families missing someone in their day, every day.

We may not know you, but we honor you.

On the Way to Easter

“When the days drew near for Him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for Him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.” 

Samaritans had their historic tensions with the Jews and vice versa. Neither approved of the other.  Samaritans’ law, temple location, and part-Jewish, part-Gentile ancestry repulsed the Jews, and Jewish elitism infuriated the Samaritans. Jesus was not welcomed to step foot within Samaritan borders if that prominent Jewish city with its Jewish temple was His final destination. They didn’t want to play any kind of support role in the direction He was going, but they never imagined that His destination would be the source of their redemption. 

The reaction of Jesus’ disciples to Samaritan rejection proves how quickly the simmering hostilities could boil over: 

“And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ But He turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village.”

If the Samaritans or the disciples could have had their way, they would have stood in Jesus’ way; their stipulations, prejudices, and preconceived ideas had drawn certain boundary lines about what was acceptable for Jesus. 

“Those people, that place, doing such a thing as that? Unacceptable!” Declared both sides about the other.

But a passive “No Trespassing” sign couldn't deter Jesus. An aggressive “Hellfire and Brimstone” judgment call wouldn’t distract Him. He quietly detoured around the Samaritans and verbally rebuked His followers. He was on His way to redeem the world, and He would do it in spite of them all. His face was set toward Easter.

Like the Samaritans, have I passively set up barriers for Jesus, because my role in His plan hinges on certain conditions?

Like the disciples, have I aggressively preferred judgment over redemption in certain cases? 

Will I have a part in Jesus’ redemptive work in someone’s life or will it happen in spite of me on the way to Easter?

For more, see Luke 9:51-56; Luke 10:29-37; John 4:1-30 

On Rosa Parks

A letter to my black friends: 

On this day of remembering the advocacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., your faces come to mind. I admit to you that I haven’t lived your family history or experienced your personal aches about your family’s future, but I’m committed to learning how my individual choices can make a difference in my sphere of influence right now.

One individual who challenges me to courageous, yet simple actions is Rosa Parks. This past year, I discovered and read her book Reflections by Rosa Parks: the quiet strength and faith of a woman who changed a nation. The chapters are divided into topics that she spoke on, wrote about, and personally applied over the course of her life. 

She lived out of straightforward conviction regarding right and wrong, an uncomplicated approach to complex racial discrimination against her. Straightforward doesn’t mean socially acceptable, and uncomplicated doesn’t mean easy. What she endured grieves me - for your sake and our nation’s - and I’m sad to say, I doubt I’d have her faith or stamina. 

But I aim for it.

“I have learned that, 

in order to bring about change, 

one must take the first step, 

or else it will not be done.” 

-Rosa Parks