Betsy

TO ALL THE MOMMIES OF YOUNG CHILDREN

Posted on May 10, 2019 by Betsy

Happy Mother’s Day!

And speaking of mothers, can we talk about superheroes? The recent rise of Marvel movies have once again brought superheroes to the forefront. Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Avengers Endgame have brought a plethora of superheroes to the screen, and to our imaginations. I bet your kids love superheroes! I do, too. Whether it’s Iron Man, the Hulk, Wonder Woman, Black Widow or the Wasp, all Superheroes have four things in common:

Courage.

A Strong Moral Code.

A High Tolerance for Pain.

Extraordinary Powers and Ability.

And funny enough, this list of super powers is also a list of characteristics of motherhood.

Courage

It takes a lot of courage to be a mom. Just ask any mom who has had to watch her child be strapped down to a gurney in the Emergency Room after an accident. Just ask every mom who has had to hold a screaming child getting a shot. In every case, kids are looking to us to tell them its OK, because when we are brave, they can be brave. From that first cry of “Momeeeee” in the morning to the last request for one more drink of water at the end of the day, it is a 24/7 situation of having to be brave every minute. This motherhood thing ain’t for sissies. Jesus once said, “Let not your hearts be troubled, and neither let them be afraid.” I believe he said that while watching a mother soothe her child with a 105 degree fever in the middle of the night, waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Supergirls can handle things that nobody else can.

A Strong Moral Code

Superhero movies are kind of the last place where moral codes are important these days. Yet moms live, eat and have their being in the Land of Strong Moral Code. Think about how many times moms say to children, “Don’t do that, its not nice.” “Stop hitting your brother, we don’t do that.” “Say please and thank you.” “Stop picking your nose.” “Don’t talk with your mouth full. Don’t chew with your mouths open!” Moms are the Guardians of the Galaxy of Good Behavior. The scriptures remind us to “raise up a child in the way they should go, and when they are grown, they will not depart from it.” So you go, Wonder Women! You are creating productive and polite citizens of the planet earth.

A High Tolerance for Pain

Please! Can we talk about childbirth??? After nine months of carrying a growing alien parasite on top of your bladder? Remember the early days of breastfeeding? And as children grow, the pain changes….watching them get hurt, seeing them struggle, experiencing rejection with them for the first time, watching them fail… Girlfriends, the pain is real. When our children hurt, we hurt. But God created mothers to be strong enough to endure the pain. When I think about how much pain a mother can endure, I remember that Jesus’ mother Mary was at the cross, and watched her son be beaten and die for the salvation of the world. Moms can tolerate a lot of pain and hurt, and yet respond with love through it all. ‘Cause that’s what Superheroes do.

Extraordinary Powers and Abilities:

Only mothers can breast feed a baby, get gum out of a two year old’s hair, make dinosaur-shaped pasta and meatballs in less than a minute, and vacuum under the sofa ALL AT THE SAME TIME. And did you know, moms possess two amazing super powers that the mere mortals they live with absolutely do NOT possess.

1. Mothers can FIND THINGS. Nobody else in the house can find their own heads on their shoulders, but Moms can find things. A mother can find the toddler’s left shoe, the son’s basketball shorts AND her husband’s keys. ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Moms find things!

2. And second, moms possess that amazing, other-worldly ability that no one else seems to be able to do the way a mom can…I’m talking about changing poopy diapers. Not just the regular poopy ones, but the explosive, Krakatoa poops that go up the child’s back, out the neck of the shirt and all over the car seat. Yes, superhero moms can do it all, I tell you!

A mother’s super powers are limitless, but possibly the best super power mothers have is PRAYER. We have the power to change and alter our kids’ lives with the powerful aspect of direct communication with God through prayer. Nobody prays for you like your Momma. And heaven knows moms pray all the time…like, “Lord, this kid is working my last nerve and if you want to see him live to be 4, help me!!” “And my favorite prayer of motherhood: “Lord, give me patience. And give it to me right now!” And mothers, if you think you pray a lot for your children now, just wait until they are TEENAGERS. WITH DRIVER’S LICENSES. AND BOYFRIENDS/GIRLFRIENDS.

But you already know how you’ll get through those days. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Remember, before they were ours, our children belonged to God. He came to give them life and give it abundantly, and he is on their side. And yours.

God is our true Superhero, and his super powers to care for, love and protect our children even outweigh a mother’s. So when you hit that wall that is guaranteed to come, pray. Just pray. And know that God hears you. And sees you. And loves you.

A Future With Hope

Posted on April 25, 2019 by Betsy

April 25, 2019

This morning I am waking up in an off-season beach rental, with a cup of caramel flavored coffee in my hand. The early morning sun is streaming onto my propped up feet and I can see that even with a good rinsing, I still have beach sand and tiny pebbles on my feet. As for my coffee, when it comes to mugs, size matters! I like a big mug. It has to be big enough, but not too big. But I dislike the jumbo ones, because the coffee goes cold too quickly. I am a mug snob.

The sun arose and lit up the room with its wake up call. There is no sleeping in at the beach. Even black out curtains won’t prevent its strong alarm, and so I get up to find a favorite chair by the window to write.

God is working something out in me. My journey through the recent Lenten season, when I woke up every morning to post a Lent devotional on my church’s Face Book page, has left me wanting more. I want the discipline of sitting down to write every morning. I want the first thoughts of the day to be focused on scripture. I want to feel the Holy Spirit moving through words, images, fingertips on keyboard, and gazing out my window and looking at the water’s edge where I live in the Outer Banks in North Carolina.

Today I am literally on the water’s edge. The Atlantic Ocean is right outside my open sliding glass door. My daughter and I have “evacuated” to this beach house to escape the repairs to a broken sewer line that are being done on my home by the sound. I can hear the waves and the calls of the seagulls searching for their morning meal. There has always been something calming and inspirational for me whenever I stand on the beach and gaze out at the infinite edge of the ocean. I take deep breaths of salt air and immediately feel centered. God is so present to me by the sea, and has been ever since I was a little girl growing up on the beaches of New Jersey and Delaware.

Writing the daily Lent Devotionals was purely by accident and not by design. After preaching on Ash Wednesday, my music director paid me a high compliment by suggesting that I post the suggestions I had made in my sermon on the 7 Lenten Disciplines. So the next morning I got up, sat in my chair by the window overlooking the marina that leads out to the Albemarle Sound, and cut and pasted. Lo and behold, people asked for a daily reminder of Lenten practices, and thus a 40 day journey began. I was suddenly on task to write something every morning, and when Easter arrived, I realized that God was calling me to continue this discipline in another format.

And so here we are, at water’s edge, looking for hope. A lifetime of standing at water’s edge has led me to appreciate the moment of leaving everything behind and staring out onto a body of water full of possibility, meaning and purpose. I sorted out my relationships, my frustrations, my failures, and my calling while walking the East Coast beaches. Here is where contentment lies.

“At Water’s Edge” is a place you can come to find the peace you lack, the answers you need, and the comfort of searching the horizon and finding a friend. God meets us here to take our hand and lead us through our day. I hope this blesses you as much as it blesses me.

And while I had no plan that first day of writing to spend the next 40 days producing a daily devotional, it appears that it was God’s plan all along.

Our Old Testament friend Jeremiah stood at the edge of Jerusalem and watched it’s destruction at the hands of the Babylonians. The Israelites had fallen into idol worship and were far away from God. Jeremiah and his people were carried away into exile, leaving the place that they loved. Yet, even then, he wrote these words:

Jeremiah 29:11 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

11 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+29&version=NRSV

God has a plan for you. Let’s find it together at water’s edge.