Tag: motherhood

Posted on

Pastoral Letter 154: The Fearful Mother

Dear Friend,

Your question was, and I hope I am doing justice to its insightfulness: “What actions can a Christian take when she is living in fear for the country’s future?” It seems you are frightened by what you perceive to be an attack on a country that you love. You are very politically active online and are constantly updating yourself with the news cycle. Assuming, these are correct assumptions, here are two ways to move forward:

First, allow me to be fairly direct with you since you posed the question with the anticipation of an objective answer. I would like to see you diminish 10% of your time on the news cycle this week. I trust I am being reasonable here. If I told you to cut off all your time, it would be too aggressive a strategy at this stage. 10% would look like keeping your cell phone charged in another room when you come to bed at night. That little ritual shift can be enormously fruitful in diminishing fear in your life. The end goal is not to forsake the political world–as if you had a choice–but the ultimate goal is to think rightly about the political world. You will find that very often the politics of God and the politics of this world are diametrically different.

I can assure you that your fascination with politics and your pessimism about the future stems from something much deeper. In other words, there are more intrinsic fears you have that are overflowing into your perspective about the world and you need to see the overarching context of your fears. You need to contemplate these small changes because I have watched couples–and specifically, mothers–offer more of their body and soul to these external causes than the internal causes of their households. Remember what I have told you: the anxious person controls the home. You do not want your anxieties to control the lives of your children and spouse.

Therefore, I think you need less screen time at night, as a starter. I think you need less bombardment from paid media gurus who literally increase their wealth by spreading more panic. More panic among viewers, more sponsors, and more wealth. You have not been given a spirit of fear, and part of that gift is that you are to steward your courage well so that it doesn’t lose its fervor. When courage and hopefulness are running low, fear happily takes its place.

Secondly, I would urge you to worship well. And by that I mean–practice rituals of worship regularly. If your schedule is filled with worshipping practices, your orientation towards political zealotry will diminish. I have seen moms get so identified with political parties–in my world, the GOP–that they would gladly take an invitation to a GOP convention than the invitation God offers to worship. This is problematic. It’s not just your heart that is in danger, but those around you. If you cannot think rightly about the world, you will not think rightly about God and his call to worship.

Stay close to friends who cherish your heart and well-being, and do not give in to zealots who tempt you to be a revolutionary. Your role is to revolutionize your home with beauty and to strengthen your soul with laughter.

Sincerely,

Pastor Uriesou Brito

#Letter154

Posted on

In Praise of Mothers

On occasion, I wish to take Wednesdays to offer gratitude for obscure causes and cares that are often overlooked by society. I began my endeavor last week by praising editors–that bastion of grammarians eagerly waiting to make a mockery when we mistake the “i” before “e” except after “c.”

Today, I wish to take the obscurity lane even farther and praise a particular kind of motherly act. Of course, mothers need to be praised every day with flower bouquets and assortments of coffee beans. But here, I am praising mothers who do something quite absurd, and most do it without expectation of gratitude. It’s the kind of activity that does not make it to the resume, but one for which I find compelling as a humanitarian aid of the greatest proportion. I am legitimately interested in the strange task of praising mothers who clean vomit and other Adamic side-effects from floors and other odd places.

I know, I know. How bizarre, sir! Certainly! But pray tell me: who is going to praise these godly saints on that last day for doing these tasks? Jesus will. And if he will acknowledge their works before the nations at the last day, why should we refuse to do so now?

Remember the text in Matthew 25 when Jesus is posing a series of questions concerning the service of the people. He says that the people saw him hungry and thirsty and naked. And the people answered: “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?” Then Jesus replied: “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” That application is not simply to some charitable cause of choice we find appealing in society. That application goes directly to the heart of mothering. Mothers of little children are daily confronted by the naked, hungry, and thirsty. They are daily providing the kind of physical protection that children are virtually incapable of providing themselves.

And what do they do especially in this season of sickness for their children? They uplift them from their pitiful looks as they aimlessly seek comfort, as their little mouths are dry from throwing up and excommunicating other things, their bodies feeble from barely eating. Yes, I wish to praise moms for this remarkable act of self-sacrifice for the cause of taking a weak child and resurrecting his strength and stamina to life again.

In a day when people will likely be attuned to “nobler” things, I wish to praise moms that clean the unthinkable; who bend their knees to comfort little children besieged (“i” before the “e”) by post-Fall pain, and who do it often without the slightest complaint. We honor you and thank you for your work! For as much as you have done these acts to the least of these–little children–you have done it unto our Lord.