I recently came across a nugget of insight from a book that was recommended to me by our Bible study leader last spring and found myself dropping tears by the end of this excerpt. I found this to be an encouragement for moms that might be feeling underappreciated by the end of the day. I know it’s rather lengthy, perhaps you can read it in morsels and come back to read the rest since I couldn’t bear to leave any of it out.
(well, maybe you could just grab some chocolate before you sit down):
Insights From a Refrigerator
My refrigerator serves as a backdrop for photographs of my friends and their families. Mounted in acrylic frames with magnets on the back, the pictures cover almost every square inch of available space. The nearly ninety families represented have a total of some three hundred children (not to mention scores of grandchildren).
Recently I spent a couple of hours in an annual ritual replacing old photos with new ones that had been sent to me during the Christmas season.
When all the new photos were in place, I sat back to survey the "big picture." I reviewed some of the highlights these families had experienced over the past year. Eight had been blessed with the birth of a new baby. At least seven had a grandchild born. Seven had a son or daughter get married. Fifteen had moved. Six had made or were in the process of making a vocational change.
Nearly all the faces in these photos are smiling. But behind some of the near-perfect poses, I knew there is more. Several individuals have confided a burden in relation to the physical or spiritual condition of specific family members. Three have recently buried a member of their immediate family. One couple is the midst of an ugly divorce.
As I pondered the scene before me, I was struck with the wonder and significance of the family- for better or worse. The family is at the heart of what really matters to all of us. If things aren’t well at home, every to her area of life is affected (italics mine). I looked at these scores of women sitting like mother hens surrounded by their brood of young ones, and I felt an enormous sense of gratitude for the willingness of those women to be givers and nurturers of life.
In the middle of all the photos, I have placed a bumper sticker you may recall seeing several years ago: "Life: What a Beautiful Choice." These women have chosen life by bearing children (something only a women can do, I might add); they are choosing life everyday…
- with every meal they prepare;
- with every load of dirty clothes they wash;
- with every trip to the grocery store, to school, to the dentist, to piano lessons, to soccer practice, or to the shoe store;
- with every scraped knee they bandage;
- with every encouraging word they speak;
- with every night hour they spend rocking a sick or scared child;
- with every dispute they arbitrate;
- with every moment they spend building Legos (in my case, playing Chutes and Ladders), coloring, helping with math problems, reading a Bible story, or listening to a husband or child describe his day;
- with every moment they spend interceding for the spiritual growth and protection of their family.
Day in and day out, they are building a home; they are being lifegivers; they are laying a foundation and building a memorial that will outlive them for generations to come; they are honoring their Creator in the greatest possible way."
-excerpt from Lies Women Believe written by Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Last month’s 
