What a Good Idea!

I got an email from our Family Ministries person. She is enthusiastic and excited about so many things and it's great to see her develop new programs and tweak the ones in place. One of the new ideas she had was to bring together single moms over dinner and babysitting. She knows a few single moms from working with the Nursery School and there seems to be a need. Someone will facilitate the discussions, someone will make sure everyone is fed, someone will make sure the kids are attended to so the moms can be. A wonderful idea.

I remember quite a long time ago, we had a "Mother's Group" for women who had young children and didn't get out much. They met in the mornings, in the used and abused furniture of the downstairs parlor to talk about what it was like being home all day with a toddler. How sometimes you were sure your brain was turning to marshmallow and it was nice when "daddy" came home to have either another adult to speak to, or someone to hand off the minute to minute care and feeding of a child. We talked of other things, too. We talked of the world situation (way before 9/11), we talked of the latest trends in technology (really? a computer in your house?), and we talked of family, life and God. As our children grew many of us got jobs and we no longer could keep attending the group. Others took it over and it went on for a while, but eventually it, too stop meeting.

I bring up this second group for a reason. Many years later, when there was a meeting about something or other at church, a woman remarked that the Mother's Group was a godsend to her. She was so busy with her children, she never saw another adult for days at a time. This group brought her out of herself and her home. She was grateful for its existence. You never know how you serve the Lord, what ways are beneficial to another person, unless you step out and make the effort. The Mother's Group all those years ago wasn't for a selected few, it may not have been highbrow discussion, it didn't really fit into a category of "committee". But we did the work of the Lord's nonetheless. We came together and listened, laughed, cried and talked for just a few months. But for this particular mom, it was a blessing.

I wish such a feeling for this new group. A blessing and a hope that we never stop gathering and coming together under St. Mark's roof.