mother | | Peter's Wife

Are You Tired?

It’s May, time to remember to honor mothers.

When I read this very familiar scripture, I was thinking of moms.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” –Matt. 11:28-30.

Is there any mom with a baby or children who is not tired and burdened? I haven’t met her! So, if you are tired and burdened, there is good news for you.

God knows what you are dealing with right now. He knows the day and night challenges of parenting. He knows you get frustrated with the constant demands. He knows that you worry about whether you are doing the right things for your child.

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Mom Overseas

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Diane and Tom Every mom wants the best for her children. And we do our best to provide all they need: unconditional love, training, and even correction.

But when we live and work overseas, we have additional concerns for our children. Normal maternal desires become multiplied and complicated by second home realities.

Some of you had to decide whether to give birth on your field or to return to your home country for delivery. Either choice causes concerns. If you remain on the field and you have a difficult delivery, will you get the medical care you need? If you return to your home country, there are additional travel costs and expenses both before and after the delivery there.

While your children reach pre-school age, other challenges pop up. If you are fully involved in work or ministry, you wonder whether child care is a safe option. Can you trust your little darling to someone else? If you are able to be at home with your child, you still may wonder about his playmates, what language he is learning, etc. When we lived in Africa, our youngest son complained to me that his playmate was stealing his toys. “Impossible,” I thought. But I talked to the boy’s mother anyway. In return, I got an angry scowl . . . and a big bag of my son’s missing toys.

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A Mother’s Sacrifice

Since Mother’s day is close, and since so many of my readers are special moms in special places, I wanted to send something about being a mother. On my personal Mother’s Day I will speak at a camp. Part of the message is about generosity. Then I found this chapter of Sue Eenigenburg’s newest book, More Screams, Different Deserts, and I knew I had the right thing to share with you.

Maybe Sue’s words will bring back some memories, both sweet and bittersweet, but mostly I hope you find yourself smiling, with maybe a knowing chuckle or two. Enjoy.

“We could find some chocolate in our host city, but not Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups or Hershey bars or Nestle’s chocolate chips. My parents were kind enough to send us care packages filled with all kinds of goodies. We would ration one bag of chocolate chips to make three batches of chocolate-chip cookies rather than using them all for just one batch as the recipe recommended. We could hardly imagine using the whole package all at once! Rationing became a habit.

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