Tips on how to be a great mom.

This was the title on a Chuck Swindoll message that I listened to today. I have taken to riding my exercise bike and listening to a podcast when I get the chance. It was so encouraging. He looked at Mary for his example. This is a good thing because Chuck Swindoll might be a great teacher, but no matter what he does he will never be a great mom. He will never be a mediocre mom or any other kind of mom.

Anyway...

His first tip was to realize the sacredness of each conception and pregnancy. The whole message was great, but that was the point that struck me the most. In this age of birth control we have some how come to think that we are the determiners of conception. We can do all kinds of things to prevent it. We can even do all kinds of fertility things from charting to IVF to encourage it. No matter what we cannot MAKE conception happen. Each child is a beautiful gift. If that child were conceived at a different time it would not be that child. I have often marveled at how a soul is knit together with a body. We have never been able to plumb those depths of the esoteric. We can clone DNA, but we cannot make a spirit. That belongs to God alone. Even identical twins with the same DNA are different people because they don't share a soul.

I have had the privilege of carrying 10 children. Seven I carried to term. Three might have only lived to be weeks old yet their conceptions were sacred. What a beautiful way to think about those precious souls that already rejoice around our Lord's throne.

I may not ever have any more children. I can get caught up in all kinds of cyclical thoughts. I can get caught up in the drudgery of diaper changes and laundry. Or I can do what I have chosen today: sipping ice tea with a dear friend as my children play outside on a lovely day, letting the little girls play in bubble water in the sink, swinging with my baby on the swing, nursing the baby and holding her close, rejoicing in how big, strong and thoughtful my oldest son is becoming. I pray that I will continue to focus on the blessings and the sacredness and not to get sucked down into the mire. I have been truly blessed.