Hello sweet Moms,
I am Melanie- your MOPS Coordinator. I want to personally welcome you to MOPS!
I am so glad you’re part of MOPS @ Crossroads and truly look forward to seeing you on September 13th!
If you are a first time mom or a “seasoned” mom, part of MOPS a couple of years or joining our group the first time, I want to extend a very warm welcome to you. My hope is that you will find encouragement, support, relevant teaching, and opportunities to develop relationships with other women who are in your same season of life. I am confident that as you become more involved in our group, you will be better equipped to face the challenges that motherhood has to offer.
If you’ve never heard of MOPS or attended a meeting before, you’re in for a real treat. Imagine, two glorious hours of talking with adults only, and moms in the same stage of life as you nonetheless! It’s a much needed break every month from the daily demands of being a mom and running a household. If you’ve ever stopped to think about it, most days in this season of our lives are filled with doing, going, and being everything for someone else. And while our children are (mos...t of the time) sweet and precious little gifts from God, they are also human beings with needs, wants, feelings and desires, and more often than not they’re incapable of fulfilling any of these things on their own. Being a mom is great. It’s rewarding, life-giving and the highest honor. But let’s face it, it’s also hard, demanding, exhausting, and sometimes makes us feel like we’ve lost our own identities.
As I am thinking and preparing for our time together and this years theme” Free Indeed”, I want to share some of my random thoughts and questions that keep lingering in my head about our Motherhood journey, friendship, freedom and life.
What do you and I long for? What is the thing that my and your heart crave?
Is it possible that our deepest desire is to be free?
Free from worry.
Free from feeling stuck.
Free from hustling to be loved.
Free from a heaviness you can’t put your finger on.
Free from thinking you should be someone other than exactly who you are.
At the core, maybe what we are all longing for is to be: Free Indeed.
Enjoying freedom is maybe a choice, one that our souls long for. I truly want to have a life marked by freedom; the kind that brings more laughter and less worry, more contentment and less hustle.
Matthew 11:29-30 says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
The thing about a "yoke" (I had to look it up in my German- English dictionary :)- It is a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals and keeps them working together- is that it doesn’t take the burden away completely, but it makes it lighter to carry because the weight is shared. Who knew?
I get weighed down by other’s expectations, fears and past mistakes, but with Jesus’ "yoke", the weight shifts and he carries most it. We may still be surrounded by the things that weighed us down in the first place, we may still hear the doubting and demeaning voices of the world, but we can shift the weight and understand who we are because of who God is. We’re already loved and loveable.
Understanding this and believing this, changes the way I parent, teaching me how I treat myself and grows me in how I see and respond to others. Believing it, lets us walk in freedom.
Listening to love and trading our heavy burden for Jesus’ light one requires some work on our part. It’s not about earning love, because God’s love isn’t based on what we do. Nothing we do can make him love us more or less. It’s about putting effort into learning more about Jesus, taking time to monitor the voices we allow to speak into our lives, and doing the work to free ourselves from old patterns of thinking or habits that hold us captive. We have to turn down the voices that lie about how God feels about us and work to hear the truth.
We are God’s beloved children. Children who don’t have to earn or hustle for our worth. Children who just need to shift the weight and find rest.
Stop settling for what simply gets us by and do the work to get to what’s best.
Take his yoke and learn from him; allow his love to change the way we feel and talk about ourselves; take the chance to share this truth with someone else.
Turn down the noise of the world, listen to truth and let your voice speak love.
Welcome to MOPS, beautiful Mama's! I am glad you are here!
With Love, Melanie
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