Before I Became a Mom

Before I became a Mom, I didn’t look so closely.

There were kids on commercials wearing rags, emaciated. I looked away, hoped there were only a few.

But there are many I’ve learned, too many needy little ones—hungry and thirsty for food and love and belonging.

Little eyes that burn through me, these line the landscape of my dreams, and I question: What is this, God, which you are stirring? What can we do to help? How can we be the change the world needs?

Before I became a Mom, it was pretty easy to avoid poverty, this global giant. But once I gathered little ones in my arms who knew me from the inside out, I understood…many are in desperate need, and so we are all in need.

This world is broken down in ways which allow our smallest to suffer and die, parentless and hungry. This is my problem. And it is yours. We would never let it happen to a neighbor down the street, but what about across the world?

Before I became a Mom, I never considered what life might be like for Mamas on the other side.

And then I tracked wet diapers on hospital charts and fought giving up parts of me and packed up diapers and discovered I would be hereafter late to everything. And then I carried burdens I thought I could fix and calmed irrational fears and fed and trained and cheered and woke at 3 AM too many times for too many different reasons.

Now I know what it is, to be a Mom. To nurse a tiny bundle to life. To reassure and answer questions (hundreds and thousands of questions, oh my!). To celebrate successes and teach them their great worth.

Both here and there, the heart of motherhood is the same: simple, complicated love. Love that hurts like laying down a life. Love that braves the scars of sacrifice, that suffers long and dies to self repeatedly, for the sake of others.

But what if we poured out all the love we could, and the stronghold of poverty kept us from providing even basic needs for our children? What if this was all we could see—malnutrition and high rates of child mortality?

Will you join me? Because WE MUST FIGHT THIS. We must join hands and stand up (now) and use our Mommy brains. We must not get overwhelmed with all the horror in this world, but keep eyes fixed on Jesus, and carry these neighbors close to our hearts. Might we look for ways to live less extravagantly so that others can just live? Click here (http://www.compassion.com/babies.htm) to learn how each of us can help mothers and babies live and thrive this Mother’s Day. Join me!

He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; He gently leads those that have young. Isaiah 40:11, NIV