24 June

1 Thessalonians 5:11

Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

Is this what we do? Or do we smile politely and turn away because we don't want to

see ourselves or what we perceive as lacking in ourselves in any other mother. 

some of the other versions say:

build one another up

strengthen one another

Do we build each other up....as women, as sisters, as friends, as mothers?


Occasionally, my mother used to drive us to school - in her pajamas....

often she would drive right past the school until we yelled - mum! And she would turn

the car 'round and we would all scramble out as quick as we could before anyone saw us.

I've done the same thing with my own children....one morning I drove back and forth

past the school three times before my children finally stopped me!

I even knew a woman whose car broke down on her way home from dropping her son off

at the middle school. She had to walk to the local coffee shop to call her ex-husband

and ask him to come pick her up - in her pajamas!!!

Perhaps you have never been in that particular situation....but I can tell you, with fair

certainty, that you will walk the walk of shame as a mother.  We all do, because we are,

none of us, perfect. And, we never will be.

Sometimes the mother's who look the most "perfect" are holding themselves up to

a level of saintly motherhood that is simply unsustainable. I feel sorry that they have

set themselves up in such a lofty prison. I imagine their beautifully made-up faces like

a mask that they remove when they get behind their own closed doors. I imagine they

are afraid that a true honest-to-goodness smile might crack the facade.

 I no longer shop in big department stores like Wal-mart but it was there  I often

saw mother's on their last legs. They were tired, they were broke, their children

needed attention...they just wanted to get through the store so they could go home.

Their parenting skills were not the best....I judged them.

I judged the perfect mothers also.

I judged myself... I compared myself to those I was judging

Romans 14:19

Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, 

and things wherewith one may edify another.

Many years ago, I sat in a fast food restaurant with my young daughters. As we ate an

older woman came over to our table and leaned in toward me. She said, "You have

wonderful, well-behaved children. You are doing a great job mothering them."

Honestly, I find it difficult to believe that my children could have been that

well-behaved. They have always been wonderful...but they were not always well

behaved. I have no recollection of how we were all behaving then.

However, I will never, ever forget the words of encouragement from that woman. Her

simple words built me up-they edified me, and I have never forgotten them.

Since then I have said the same words to other women...strangers. I have said those

words to all kinds of mothers in all kinds of places having all kinds of days.

1 Corinthians 14:26

How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. 

Let all things be done unto edifying.

word filled wednesdays

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