Moms NEED Each Other

I wrote this in 2014, and now, walking with a friend who is going through a miscarriage, the words ring so true.

I don't think many moms can fully express how important relationships are with other moms.
We will often find ourselves disapproved by some mom.
We will often find ourselves glorified by some mom.
We will usually quite easily find a mom who's got more challenges, more kids, and more stuff on her plate who seems to be so much more holy, more organized, more awesome.
We need to always giggle in merciful love with moms who toss up their hands in frustration, admitting or crying that they haven't quite figured out the balance... (and offer hugs and support)
because we know... ::wink, wink:: we all need God's merciful love... we're all stumbling on this funny path to holiness... it sure doesn't look straight, and it sure is narrow.
This is more of a Mom-specific PSA that we absolutely need to relate to other moms in order to encourage, help, sustain, wonder, and extend grace to one another. And a strong suggestion that we not push each other away or isolate even ourselves.

The perfect example I draw upon when I'm talking with close moms is the Elizabeth and Mary or Ruth and Naomi model.
I often say, "As Elizabeth and Mary walked together, I will walk this road with you."

We have to remember that Elizabeth was well into her years, and the likelihood that she would die in childbirth was supremely high. Mary, her cousin, arriving to help, also implied in their culture that Mary would adopt John if his mother died during childbirth. The road for Elizabeth was very hard, although we also acknowledge that Mary's road, especially from her young age and the angelic instructions of her betrothal to prevent being stoned, was no less difficult. I am certain that for both of these women, the circumstances that led them to walk with one another were such a blessing: Mary being out of town and away from the inquisitiveness of her neighbors as her pregnancy progressed, Elizabeth having a young and energetic cousin to help with chores, meals, and companionship in pregnancy.

I encourage my fellow mamas, seek the sisterhood of other mamas. Let us seek the sisterhood of those who will lift us up above the circumstances of life, who will walk with us through our crosses, and who will call us to Heaven.

Here are a few scriptures that pertain to the specific nature of companion motherhood and sisterhood.

Ruth 1:11, 13, 15-18
Naomi replied, “Go back, my daughters. Why come with me? Have I other sons in my womb who could become your husbands?... Even if I had any such hope, or if tonight I had a husband and were to bear sons, would you wait for them and deprive yourselves of husbands until those sons grew up? No, my daughters, my lot is too bitter for you, because the LORD has extended his hand against me.” ...
“See now,” she said, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her god. Go back after your sister-in-law!”
But Ruth said, “Do not press me to go back and abandon you!
Wherever you go I will go,
wherever you lodge I will lodge.
Your people shall be my people
and your God, my God.
Where you die I will die,
and there be buried.
May the LORD do thus to me, and more, if even death separates me from you!”
Naomi then ceased to urge her, for she saw she was determined to go with her.

Remember where Elizabeth and Ruth went?... To Bethlehem!

Luke 1:39-56
During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.t And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

The Canticle of Mary. And Mary said:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness;
behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.
The Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is from age to age
to those who fear him.
He has shown might with his arm,
dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.
He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones
but lifted up the lowly.
The hungry he has filled with good things;
the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped Israel his servant,
remembering his mercy,
according to his promise to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.