This month of May, our church hosts families who are in need of housing and food. Well, we have been making meals for these families for the past 10 years. Some years recently were difficult to watch young mom's with a baby, when that's where our desire was. This year seemed different. I spoke with one of the mom's who is a mother of one child. She seemed somewhat defensive, I know the feeling, about having only one child. She is older than me and is happy with the child she has, a beautiful daughter, a few years older than Chantel. So, Chantel enjoyed playing with her.
I was able to speak with this mom and let her know that I could understand her feelings. I was raised as an only child and my dad was an only child. That seemed to help her relax and know that I could understand her and wasn't going to ask her a lot of hard questions about children, like some people do.
Also, I felt after we returned home that my experience was one that many people in our congregation could not relate to. Currently, having one child, may have given me a unique opportunity to reach out to this hurting mother and her child. Most families in our congregation have at least 3 or 4 children. Two is unusual and one is very uncommon.
I kind of thanked God and relished the moment for having that unique opportunity of using my only child status to relate to someone in need. I hope that I will never forget the unique opportunity that God has given me. We look forward to going back to stay overnight and to connect with these people again.
Don't miss my devotional excerpt and Mother's Day entry below!
1 comment:
Chris - God uses all our experiences, good and bad, as opportunities for us to minister to others who are in similar situations. (2 Cor. 1:3-7) I'm glad that you had the opportunity to use your own hurt to understand and relate to someone who was hurting. Amy
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