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Dear MOPS & MOMSnext Mama, What a joy it has been to spend a whole year together, learning and growing. We got to meet in person all year long & that is something to celebrate! While that year has come to a close and we're full swing into summer, we are really just beginning - as we come together for our summer playdates and anticipate a new year. As we keep turning towards each other - What if we really believed we were already fully known? That we were intentionally and purposefully created and all of our ways, every part of who we are, is already familiar to God. More than we know Him or about Him, what's really important is that He knows us. We are written on the palm of His hands (Isaiah 49:16) and fully known (1 Corinthians 13:12). We can never hide from God. (Hebrews 4:13) What if we knew we were already seen? That God watches over all of our coming and going (Psalm 121:8), seeing all that is good and all that is not good (Proverbs 15:3). He knows our hurts - the places that bleed, the tears we cry - what if we lived knowing that we have always been seen? Yes, us mamas with laundry piled on surfaces, crumbs on the floors, groceries waiting to get picked up, lost library books and forgotten homework assignments just living a whole lot of day in-day out ordinary...SEEN. Do you know the first person in the Bible who gives God a name is a woman and a mother who was abandoned, rejected, outcast. She gave God the name - EL ROI, "the God who sees". What if we knew we were unconditionally loved? That absolutely nothing - no trouble, no hunger, no danger, no threat,…

I buried my toes deeper in the sand and watched as my son Leo, not quite three, splashed and waded in the lake. He walked up to another boy, probably a few years older, and they started playing together. They played for hours - two boys who had never even seen each other before that day.  “Mom,” Leo said to me, as I buckled him into his carseat and piled our beach gear into the back of our car, “When can I play with my friend again?”  I went home that day and I googled MOPS in Meadville. Ironically, I had been invited to MOPS two years before, by a stranger on the beach. I’d refused the invitation, because I was pretty sure I didn’t need a mom club AND if I’m really honest, I wasn’t sure about making new mom friends. Making friends is hard. But the day I googled MOPS in Meadville, I had watched my three-year-old basically become best friends with a stranger and I let myself actually feel the underlying feelings I kept stuffing down inside.  The loneliness. I wasn’t sure I was worthy of community. I had friends, but they mostly lived far away. Born and raised in New England, I had moved 800 plus miles after I married Ryan. In the last year, we had left the church we had been attending since we got married and the youth ministry we had started and led for five years. We were no longer a part of the only community we belonged to, where we lived. To top it off, in one of the most vulnerable and hardest seasons of my life, one of my closest friends betrayed me. I still wasn’t sure friendship and community was worth it, but the day I googled MOPS in…

Last time, we started talking about what it looks like to love our kids well, and part of loving them well is meeting the needs they have. In her book, A Confident Mom, Simple Ways to Give Your Child What They Need Most, Renee Swope identities several needs all kids have, and one of those needs is to feel known, understood, and completely accepted for who they are. We were reminded of how intentional God was when He created each of our kids and how He gave our kids qualities that are unique just to them. These qualities that make our child unique are to be valued and celebrated, and it’s important to know, understand and accept our kids for who God created them to be. Another need our kids have is to feel loved and pursued. This one is so important. For our kids to go through this life well, they need to believe without a doubt that they are loved. We looked at the Five Love Languages of Physical Touch, Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Gifts, and Acts of Service and were reminded that it is important to be communicating all of these love languages to our children. The reasoning behind this is that it can be difficult to identify the primary love language of our child much before the age of five, but it is also important that our children observe us modeling how to communicate love to others in different ways. This will help them understand how to love others whose love language may be different from their own.  Today, I want to talk about some other needs that our kids have. The first, is that character matters. Character is defined as the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual, and is built over time…

If I were to ask you, what it looks like to love your kids well, what would you say? Some of you might say that providing food, clothing, and a safe home shows your kids that you love them. Some of you might say spending quality time together as a family or speaking words of affirmation over your kids are ways you can show them they are loved. Today, I want to talk about some specific areas that we can focus on that will help us love our kids well.  In her book, A Confident Mom, Simple Ways To Give Your Child What They Need Most,  Renee Swope shares different needs that all children have. She offers practical tips on how to meet those needs while also building Godly characteristics within our children. She says, “We can develop the gold of God's character in our children's hearts by offering them the ingredients of encouraging words, God's Word, and an emphasis on character in an environment of acceptance, approval, affirmation, and unconditional love under the conditions of heart connection, belonging, affirmation, listening, quality time, patience, awareness, an accurate portrayal of God's goodness and grace, fun and loving biblical discipline, the power of apology, and forgiveness.” By providing the right ingredients in the right environment under the right conditions, we can love our kids exactly as God has called us. So what are some of these needs that our kids have? One need your child has is to feel known, understood and completely accepted for who he is. We are reminded in the book of Psalm, that each of our children were carefully and uniquely created exactly as God intended.  “For You shaped [my child], inside and out. You knitted [my child] together in my [own] womb long before [he] took [his]…

It’s been over twenty years, but I can still remember so clearly the shock I felt at my husband’s words. “Let’s go down to the beach.” Now, you may be asking yourself what is so shocking about that statement. Let me give you a little background.  Newlyweds for less than a week, my husband and I were on our honeymoon in Myrtle Beach. On this particular day, we left the beach earlier than normal and returned to our rental house. Storms had begun forming all around us and having been struck by lighting already once in my life, I was not eager for a repeat experience. Upon returning to our rental, my husband jumped in the shower, and I turned on the tv just in time to see a local weather alert come across the screen. Several counties in the area were under a tornado warning, and the weather anchor was encouraging people to take cover immediately. Glancing around the mobile home that was home sweet home for us that week, I could feel my panic start to rise. If we were indeed in the path of this storm, I had no idea where we would take cover. We were in the middle of a sea of mobile homes with no basements in which we could take shelter. I called into my husband, who was still in shower, and asked the name of the county in which we staying. His answer confirmed for me that we were one of the counties included in the warning and in the direct path of this storm. Trying to control my now racing heart, I told him we were under a tornado warning and were being encouraged to take cover. His response caught me completely off guard. He suggested we go down to the…