https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/whatever-happened-to-statesmanship

What we see will violate what we know unless what we know dictates what we see.  Lysa Teurkerst

Mothers Day, a day for Mothers

I have been trying to gather my thoughts about Mothers day lately and have found that I am pretty scattered.  Kind of like a shotgun blast.  I have known, experienced, and been all different types of mothers in my day...
My own mother was a divorced mother in an era that didn't see this as 'normal'.  She was a hard worker and taught me a lot about being self sufficient.  I followed in her footsteps and started out my motherhood journey as a single mother, thinking I was progressive and didn't need a wedding band or a spouse.  I learned quickly that raising a child does truly take a village and a spouse.  Its simply not ideal to raise a child without the benefit of a mother and a father.  It hurts the child and causes them have have an unbalanced view of life and themself.  A child truly needs to be raised with a man and a woman to see the whole picture of what life means.
I've known mothers who are in a marriage, but once the baby comes, the husband is thrown into the backseat while the baby gets all their attention for themself.  This is also harmful.  A marriage, at least the way God designed it, is to be the primary relationship in a family.  That relationship is what allows the children to see the proper way men and women are to love and serve one another.  God knew this, but unfortunately this easily gets distorted in many homes.  God made Eve as the helpmeet,  I've heard it said that the women was created out of the side of Adam so that they would walk together, side by side  When a mother lets their children become first place in the home, they create tension and a false view for the child.  
I've also known mothers who smother their children so much with love and affection and protection that the child is at a total loss if the Mother is not near them.  Now truly, a newborn needs their mother near by, but the goal of motherhood should include teaching our children to make their way in life.  We aren't always going to be there and we can't possibly protect our children from every harmful thing, nor should we.  Life hurts sometimes, and their are simply things that have to be learned the hard way.  Thankfully, God gives us His Word as a guide to life.  
My main thought about motherhood, is something I have come to realize as I work with women and young girls.  Women have a hard time with change.  There, I've said it, we simply do not like to change from one season to the next.  I started realizing this when Jay and I came to Zion.  As I started working with women more closely, and seeing the painful things that happen in life.  I realized how difficult this is for a lot of women to accept that life changes and that includes us.  We aren't always going to be what we are right now.  It will change and we can either go with it or fight it.  
When my grandmother died many years ago, for some reason, that I still don't understand, the family asked me to give the eulogy for her.  I was lead to Ecclesiastes 3, it was fitting then and is fitting now, so I leave you with these words...  I read the KJV at her funeral, but since then I have come to love the Message version, 

There’s a Right Time for Everything

3 There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

^2-8 A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

^9-13 But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I’ve had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he’s coming or going. I’ve decided that there’s nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That’s it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It’s God’s gift.

¹⁴ I’ve also concluded that whatever God does, that’s the way it’s going to be, always. No addition, no subtraction. God’s done it and that’s it. That’s so we’ll quit asking questions and simply worship in holy fear.

¹⁵ Whatever was, is.
Whatever will be, is.
That’s how it always is with God.

sometimes you just got to go for it

https://www.quikly.com/joannstores/s/KrPKldXl?utm_content=blogger

Therapeutic hugging

When I was in high school I read a book that impacted me in a way that I remember it to this very day... Love, by Leo Buscaglia.
I used to give that book with wedding gifts, probably still could.  There is s story in the book that Dr. Buscaglia shared about a student that was once in his class, who committed suicide, and nobody in the class even noticed she was gone.  How very sad.
He was forever changed from having had this experience and it launched him into the art of human touch and hugging.  He spent the rest of his life speaking and hugging his way around the country.
It is a definite need that we humans have, to be touched and to touch one another. It heals, it restores, it improves our psyche.
I would highly recommend finding a copy of this book and reading it, it may just change your life, too.