Putting Bold, Loving, and Sensible into Action

Welcome to our new blog for North Pointe MOPS! We hope you’ll check back here often for encouragement as a mom, practical ideas for your family, and updates on what’s going on in our MOPS group. This blog is still a work in progress, so if you have any ideas of what you’d like to see, let us know. And if you’d like to contribute, that would be even better!

I was so encouraged by our first meeting together, especially by the talk that Wendy gave. I appreciated the “realness” of her experiences and the practicality of what she had to share.

And in the ironies that often come with being a mom, it wasn’t too long before I had the opportunity to put into practice the ideas of being bold, loving, and sensible, particularly the latter two.

Right after clean-up from our meeting, I had to rush my son to preschool. Then my daughter didn’t take a good nap. When I picked my son up from preschool, the teacher informed me that his behavior that day had not been good—at all.

When we got home, I tried to get the kids a snack, but it was soon apparent I had two very cranky and tired children, and we were quickly headed toward meltdown phase. (Did I mention that my husband happened to be out of town and had been for a few days?)

I decided we needed to go for a walk and get a change of scenery. When I walked back to their rooms for jackets, all of a sudden I heard the sloshing of liquid falling on the floor and two children wailing.

One child was upset because his sister had spilled his chocolate milk, and it was all gone. The other was crying because she was soaked from head to toe with said milk.

Now generally my first reaction during these kind of moments is not to be loving or sensible, though perhaps I am sometimes bold (maybe not in the right way). But God brought the message from our morning meeting to mind—how could I put into practice the things we’d talked about?

Rather than getting upset, I tried to be loving by sitting on the floor, gathering my sobbing children onto my lap, and trying to comfort them—and letting the pool of chocolate milk sit on the floor for a time.

When the cries had finally subsided to muffled sobs, I switched into sensible mode and got them up, made a new cup of chocolate milk for one, stripped the second one down to her diaper to give me time to clean up the floor. Then, we got everyone dressed appropriately and finally headed outside for our walk.

Later when I had time to reflect on this comedy of errors, I realized that what I learned in MOPS that morning, and what I’ve learned in the three and half years I’ve been involved with this organization, is truly helping me to be a better mom. It wasn’t that long ago when I would have let a day like this make me feel sorry for myself. Why couldn’t my kids behave? Why did a bad day always have to escalate with one thing after another? And why did this always happen when my husband was out of town?

MOPS has helped me realize that these things are just part of being a mom and enable me to take the big and small trials of every day more in stride. It’s caused me to take a step back in moments like this and “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:18). Not that I’m thankful for spilled chocolate milk and crying children but that I have these children to love and guide and find joy in.

What about you—have you had any moments since our last meeting when you’ve been able to be bold, loving, or sensible in your parenting? What’s been one of the biggest ways you’ve grown as a mother in the last year? - Mindy