An act of kindness.

I came home from work yesterday to find my mother-in-law with a little trinkle of sweat on her cheek. She always has a huge smile on her face and she says, "Man, my back is really sore." I inquire, "Why?" She responds, "Well, I think it is because I did all of your laundry, so I did the stairs quite a bit." And then I think I heard the trumpets sound and angels sing. I mean, that may be small to some but I have two babies under the age of two. I probably had at least 10 loads of laundry. This is HUGE! My laundry hasn't been caught up since before Lydia was born and she is 14 weeks old. It was close about two months ago when my Granny and Mom came over and finished all but a few loads, but I am ashamed to say I still never had empty baskets. Anyway, it gets better! I KNOW! Then I look to the counter and dinner is cooked AND she proceeds to tell me that both kids are bathed and pretty much ready for bed.

I have to say here, this is a moment when I feel so incredibly loved. Right now in my lfe, I work really hard to keep up with all that I have going on in my world. Sometimes I allow the tasky stuff of life to rob me of the special, sweet moments of raising two young ones. It fills my mind and my OCD just takes over. So this act of service, kindness, and love really was something for me. What I love though about my Mother-in-law is that she really sees me. She takes the time to hear me and knows what would be specifically helpful to me. That means the world to me. Her thoughtful heart and sweet spirit bring me great joy.

I have to part you with this challenge. Women of God, love your mother-in-law well. Let's break the 'rules' together and cultivate relationships that honor God. We all have the opportunity to choose how we will respond to and accept this relationship. Our culture just breeds this notion that this specific relationship is doomed for failure. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this woman in my life has looked over many of my faults and failures and has chosen to love me. I hope and pray that I can honor her and love her well in return. She is a gift to me.

Comments

  1. Debbie Carrico HagueNovember 16, 2010 at 7:54 PM

    That's awesome Marri! She is so loving. I am also blessed with a wonderful, loving mother in law. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. JonNovember 16, 2010 at 8:14 PM

    So true about the "norm" of society when it comes to wives and their mothers-in-law. It's seems rare to hear of a relationship where the two ate close. I'm very grateful that my mom is loving to Ashley and treats her like her own child. I've heard a lot of negative talk about in-laws since I started working in healthcare five years ago so its refreshing to read this blog post Marri.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beth ChuppNovember 18, 2010 at 11:34 AM

    Great post Marri, I miss my mother-in-law every day and even more now that we have a young one! I wish I had had the time with her to cultivate what I know would be a very loving very rewarding relationship. She raised a great son and I can only imagine the kind of mother in law she would have been!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kerry DunhamNovember 19, 2010 at 3:03 AM

    Oh, Marri, I just found your blog and I love it! You make me smile...and reading it makes me feel like it's been ages since we were in nursing school (that's a good thing!) :) I am so blessed by my mother-in-law too. She is supportive and loving. She has never made one negative comment about my parenting or my abilities to be a wife to her son. She loves me for who I am, and I don't have to "perform" in a certain way to gain her respect or love. The relationship is a blessing beyond anything I could have hoped for when I married my husband. I'm so glad you have that, too.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The story I never wanted to tell

This story is a hard one to tell.  I don't believe that I have to share it, but I also understand that many, many people have questions when a little one dies.  So, I will share it with the hope that your hearts will settle into the One who can lift up your soul.  I know that Haddy's death, whether you knew him or not, leaves a terribly unsettling feeling.  I want your heart to be nestled into the Father for such a time as this. July 4, 2018, my 38th birthday began with a plan.  Our dear friends, the Dickensons, asked us to go to the pool of a friend of theirs.  We love water.  We spend as much time as we can near or in it.  Both of our families had asked a few others to join us.  We got there around 1 p.m.  We played, we swam, we talked, we laughed.  It was incredibly tender and dear.  Our conversations were our normal.  We laugh, tease, play, but in an instant one of us may be talking about something deep and meaningful.  We talk with our children, all of them, from younges
Read more

A Whisper: Your Pain is Not Sovereign

Image
Art by Lydia Hampton The most valuable, sewn in through pain anchor of a whisper from my Lord this past year is this:   Your pain is not sovereign.    I am.   It has been whispered into the unspoken broken, over my broken body, and surrounding my aching, shattered heart.    God Himself measures the calamity that reaches my little world.    Don’t ever be fooled.    He’ll give you far more than you can handle.    Many conclude within the wreckage of anguish that this must mean He cannot be both sovereign and good.    In our utter groaning we feebly look for some way to calculate the incalculable.    We try to make sense of what seems completely insensible.    I couldn’t even attempt to guess the number of times I’ve replayed the treacherous, my brain trying to reconfigure what could have been or what I could have done differently to change the death of my son.    In the mystery of it all, I’ve had nowhere else to turn with even a glimpse of rest but Christ.    I cannot ultimately believe
Read more

Dare to Hope

I've been wrestling.  My son died 6 weeks ago.  Days have already turned into weeks.  Soon, weeks will turn into months, and months will turn into years.  So many people ask me, "How are you?"  I understand that the question is more like saying 'hello' to most.  It is simply a greeting.  It's just that this question forces me to confront my reality.  The answers I have rehearsed for years upon years don't suit me anymore.  My honest answers are too raw, too painful to expose in a simple greeting.  I see the kindness in the eyes of many who ask and I don't assume the worst.  Instead, I worry.  I worry that people may want my 'tour of grief' to end before it will.  I am not even certain that I have entirely accepted that my boy isn't coming home to me.  I mean, all of his clothes are folded and placed in his dresser and they don't appear in the laundry basket covered in spaghetti sauce, dirt, or peanut butter anymore.  Man, he loved peanu
Read more