Supreme blessings.

I'm waiting for a baby to start crying. I have something important I want to write, but it's hard to get it down wondering if in the next 10 seconds Mr. Cat Nap is going to wake up. This is how most days go at present, which has something to do with what I have on my heart. Let's see if this will happen.

It has been a busy, relatively aimless summer. During the school year I am usually involved in a Bible study during the day, but most of the summer goes by without me being in something organized. This has made me feel ungrounded and a little isolated. I am looking forward to my Moms Together Bible study beginning this week. Today I realized just how much I need that and how meaningful it is to me and to others.

I took the boys to the gym today so I could get some exercise, a shower, and let's face it, some kid-free time. Afternoons have been long with LB's short naps and I thought I could use some extra energy to have a good afternoon today. The gym I sometimes go to is on one of our church's campuses, and it is the same building in which we have Moms Together. Today when I walked in I saw several of the coordinators of this group working on some administrative things in the building.

Diane greeted the boys and I with a big smile, a hearty hello, and a high five for BB. "Look at the name tags, aren't they pretty?" she said. She was rejoicing over the little things - an important reminder to do the same. A few minutes later after dropping off the kids I came back through the room and recognized more of the ladies sitting together at a table discussing our group and I'm positive they were also praying for us. "Here is one of our girls!" someone exclaimed as I walked by. A girl! Gotta love these women, I'm a girl! I felt like a celebrity. A young celebrity.

After working out I went down the hall to check on LB and I passed another small group of women taking a tour of the nursery. One checked on LB for me since I was worrying about how he was doing today. He hadn't taken a morning nap and was upset this morning. (He just woke up from his 30-minute afternoon nap, just as I'd expected.) I left there to go hit the showers and out popped Glendarae from another of the rooms in the hall.

It was like an amusement park in that church building today. and the featured attractions were these lovely ladies ensconsed in every room and at every table preparing, praying, and studying their Bibles, all to be there for younger women like me who spend our days changing diapers, nursing and feeding babies, reading the same book a million times, saying things like, "No, sweetie, don't lick that," and "No, that's cat food, Stinker." These ladies give their time, effort, and talents in order to love and mentor to others. To me!

I knew that a lot of work went into this time of Bible study, food, and fellowship. I'd heard about prayer meetings and leaders lunches and have benefitted from all of the personal touches at our Bible study tables and in our large groups. But only today do I guess I really got to see first hand what goes into this. It was like God showing me how much I am loved and prayed for, and how important my job of raising children is, even when it seems like all administrative work and menu planning. I needed it, I know I did. It's easy to get stuck in a mommy rut and start to think that my job isn't important for the greater good of God's kingdom.

What a neat morning. Now I'm perfectly content that No Nap McGee woke up after a 30 minute nap and is now playing happily at my feet drinking water from Big Brother's cup and talking to himself. This is a good job - an important job. So important that God has appointed angels to pray for me and teach me what it means to disciple others. Right now BB and LB are my disciples, but maybe in the future I'll be sitting in one of those rooms praying for "My girls," or as my leaders call us, "Our moms." It's so cute.

Thank you, Titus 2 moms, can't wait to see you on Thursday! I am rejoicing in you today, and in the little things, too. (Although, not diapers. Maybe next semester.)

Love,
Amy