Margie S. - Embracing your role
You are probably familiar with the nursery rhyme about Jack Spratt and his wife. Margie can relate to this family. The Spratt family, as told in the storybook that she read, was not only Mr. and Mrs. Spratt; it was a growing family with animals and many children. The children just kept coming, and coming…
So, as you can imagine, there probably wasn’t much fresh air for the Spratt family. Between the barn animals and the house full of kids, Mr. and Mrs. Spratt had their hands full.
Margie presents some ideas for places where moms can go to look for fresh air.
First is the Past. Few people think to look in the past for fresh air. Fewer still, of those who have a difficult past in their biography. But take heart, even if you have an unpleasant past or come from a dysfunctional background, it's important to look there for fresh air. By looking to your past you have the opportunity to make peace with it and move on. In this moving on, perhaps, you may find fresh air in that freedom.
Philippians
Proverbs 31 is a testimony, of sorts, of the lessons taught by a mother to her son. Verse 28 is best known: “Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:
Margie reminds us that, while it doesn’t seem so now, there will be a time when your children are not preschoolers. You will, one day, have free time with which to do whatever you desire.
For now, our job as mothers is to prepare our children to go out into the world and be fruitful. They are like arrows to be shot out. Psalm 127:3-4 describes it best. “Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth.”
You can find fresh air in the Future by cultivating your relationships with your kids. One key to this is keeping the communication open. As Margie shares, and many moms would agree, kids often want to talk just as you are getting ready to sit down to read (or in Margie’s case, write), make a phone call, or rest. In other words, they come to talk at just the moment when you don’t feel like it. Margie shares her experience; babies want to “talk” in the middle of the night, preschoolers want to talk in the morning, and teenagers want to talk late at night. But if you set aside your own desire to read, write, or whatever it is you were about to do, when your child comes to talk then you just might find that they bring you fresh air some time in the future.
Margie recounts recent conversations with her kids in which she heard "mom you have lots of wisdom", and "you're one of my favorite people to talk to”. Being available to your children now can pay off big in the future. And when issues crop up with your child, deal with them now.
Margie shares a conversation that she had with a woman named Sokie. Sokie, and her husband, are live-in help to Margie’s aunt. This wonderful Christian couple has worked for many wealthy families over the years and when Margie and her five older children were there for a visit recently, Sokie was encouraging Margie and complimenting her work as a mother. Margie confessed that she didn’t feel like she did it right always and that her house was a mess, to which Sokie replied that she has worked in many clean homes where the kids are killing themselves...don't worry about the house.
So how do you find fresh air with preschoolers running around? Margie offers these three steps:
- Manage your home; pay a babysitter to watch your kids for a couple of hours while you clean your house, check out Rachel Ray and get some practical guidance on food preparation, consider a mother’s helper
- Manage your family; learn and teach the Three Ds (that are not to be tolerated) Deceit, Disobedience, and Disrespect. For those with husbands (particularly the younger families) – give it time, maturity will come. Remember, Genesis
- Manage your self; don’t try to be Super Mom – you’ll burn out. Remember that even cordless phones need a little time in the charger once in a while – don’t forget to give yourself time to recharge. And contribute something small to your well-being each day.
Margie reads a few lines from a popular song performed by Carly Simon; perhaps you remember it:
We can never know about the days to come
But we think about them anyway
And I wonder if I’m really with you now
Or just chasing after some finer day.
Anticipation, anticipation
Is making me late
Is keeping me waiting
And tomorrow we might not be together
I’m no prophet, I don’t know nature’s way
So I’ll try to see into your eyes right now
And stay right here, cause these are the good old days.
To breath fresh air, look into the past, look into the future, and live in the present.