Our first Meeting Recap

 Kick- Off Meeting Thoughts

by Mentor Mom Jan

Well we did it ladies, our first get together of the new year. 

What a blessing to see so many familiar faces return and so many new faces join in.   Even as exciting this all is, I think probably many of us were anxious over something. 

How was this first day at Mops going to go? 

Would our children do ok, would we like who is at our table? 

Would I fit in? 

Ladies don’t think you were alone, as many of us in leadership were anxious over whether we could make all the moms feel welcomed and get good conversation going so you enjoyed yourself. 

So now we can all exhale and take in some of the many details of a busy morning.  I personally thought there were some life changing ideas presented to us this morning that take some time to digest if we want to grow from having heard them. 

This year we are adding this extra blogging format to our meeting calendar where you can grab a cup of coffee and ok, some chocolate, when the kids are busy, take a few minutes to revisit the morning topic.  So please join us in the ongoing conversation of what it means to be “FREE INDEED.”

As the morning rolled out we watched a DVD by Mandy Arioto, the President and CEO of MOPS International,  about learning how to be free from the demands of the world, whether perceived or real.  

I think we were all able to relax just a bit, while realizing that we all worry, and compare and have bad self talk.  Mandy told us stories about her best friend who was audaciously fearless, bold, showed her love, had fun, was the first to move forward, asked the crazy ask, and lived life to the full. 

Bringing this idea back to us and making it real, Melanie asked all of the leadership to be a bit transparent and boldly claim the areas we struggle with and would like to have freedom from.  It would be interesting to hear some of your reactions when you saw the words boldly presented to you all.  My take away is that this is something we all struggle with, but our struggles don’t all look the same. 

Knowing this helps us in two important ways.  The first is somehow knowing that other people struggle helps me to be less critical of myself which allows me to deal with the issue rather than just beat myself up over the issue.  Then #2 it helps me to have grace for others when they struggle with something that I may not find a problem, remembering I have my own struggles.  I should have the same grace for them as I would like them to give me. Mandy made a comment that I don’t think we somehow turn around.  She said, “what others think about you is not as important as what you think about yourself.”  I think we all too often turn this around and what we think about ourselves is based solely on what others think about us, or what we think they think about us, which is even more concerning.  When we expose this thought to common sense, why on earth would we base our opinion of ourself on what someone else thinks or may think.  Aren’t we then giving complete control of our lives to someone else?

There are some of you that think I am crazy right now and think there is no way you do this.  I wish I were you!  This is a battle I have had my whole life, but it has been in the last few years that I have come to understand that my value does not come from what others think of me, but it actually comes from what God thinks of me.  It has been since I realized I am who I am because of what God has done for me and how He thinks of me, that I have been able to change my self talk and have some love, even for me. 

Well that may sound arrogant, and I agree it would be if I was saying, come look at me, I am pretty remarkable.  I am not saying that,  please don’t go there, I have just paid more attention when I start being super critical of myself if what I am thinking is real or just lies I am telling myself.   Listen to what Mandy went on to say.   “We will bask in the freedom of living loved by understanding who God is, and who we are because of it.  We will be free from the need to hustle for our own worth, and we will live in the truth that we are already loved and lovable without all of the striving.” “The need to hustle for our own worth”  That is a line that should stop us in our tracks. The topic of being too busy rang true in most of the girls at our table.  But how do you choose because so much of it is good stuff.

I know, I sure have worked hard trying to live out the “I can do it all”  card dealt to us.   Ok, there are some parts of this card I will never have, but that makes we work all the harder on the other parts.  And the truth.  They don’t bring happiness.  I just became exhausted.   In God’s eyes we already are someone special, and I can not earn it.  And it is when I realized this, that I was able to start letting go of all my “to do” items in my head.  I started to have more quiet time, so I could think about life and what I wanted to do.  Sure we still have to do lists, but the reason behind the to do list can change your life.  

Life is full of choices. And it is thru making those choices that will pave our direction in life.  It can be in the power of a single choice that you will find yourself catapulted in a new direction.  With just one single good choice you open the door for many more good choices.  Ladies, I hope that by the end of our year together you will be able to look back and think, that coming to MOPS was a good choice.  That it helped you to take time to think about life, and the choices you get to make. We know we are not going to solve all of our problems in life, but we sure can surround ourselves with other women who are willing to be transparent and learn from each other how we can make better choices. 

“FREE INDEED”, there is lots to think about. 

I would love any comments that you might want to share with the group. 

Lets continue the conversation in our Facebook group!  

Love, Jan