The best ways I can think of to be a blessing to a mom of young children are:
1. Be a listening ear.
2. Be an extra pair of hands.
3. Offer her encouragement.
Tonight two different ladies at church were an immense blessing to me.
Our pastor’s wife is one of them. Caleb was overly tired, so I took him out so he wouldn’t disrupt the service. We went back into the sanctuary, he was quiet. . .and Anna started fussing. I got up and took them both to the nursery. I was wondering how to juggle the kids since both of them were just tired, and this mama’s lap is only so big. I was going to hold them both, but our pastor’s wife followed me in there and held Caleb for me. He was asleep in minutes.
It was so nice to be able to talk to her. Her children are just a bit older than mine, so it was nice to be able to share some of my parenting struggles with her and listen to her solutions. She was a huge encouragement to me. God knew I really needed it tonight.
Then, after church, I was able to talk with another one of the ladies. Since I’m usually at the piano before and after services, there’s not much opportunity to talk to many of the ladies before they leave.
We got to talking about serving in church. . .and I mentioned how being a mommy and serving (in my case) are sometimes two separate roles. Stephen and I are both involved in the service (he’s the music director and I’m the pianist), so our kids usually sit with someone else. It’s hard sometimes for me to be up front and watch my kids sit elsewhere, when all I want is my children around me. It’s just not possible all the time. It’s a struggle for me to switch between the role of Mommy to that of church pianist. What was a blessing to me was that she gets it.
I’m so thankful for these two women who were a blessing to me tonight!