Thank YOU!

This week I have been thinking about people I am thankful for. There’s a very long list!

But here’s what I just this morning realized: The list is even longer than I had thought since it includes—you! What I mean is that it includes hundreds of moms that I get to meet when I travel and speak. Some tell me that they read this blog (thank you!).

And here’s what happens when I travel and meet moms: I am so inspired by your stories. I am absolutely blown away by your commitment, creativity, and courage. I see it in your eyes when you talk about your families. I hear it in your voices when you share your stories. I feel it in your body language when you bring your children to meet me.

Whether you are sharing your stories about being a single parent, about your husband’s repeated deployments, about your long struggle with cancer, about the joys and challenges of parenting your beautiful little girl with Downs syndrome—or just the day-to-dayness of being a mom, I see something in you that I admire beyond words.

It causes me to give thanks—to God and for you.

I just got back from a super-fun Texas road trip. And the stories linger…and they blend with stories from the last six months or so of travel. There are way too many to share right now. Especially since this is Thanksgiving week and I know you have a whole lot to do besides read this blog!

But I do want to thank you for the way your thanks to me for Mom to Mom’s ministry in your life encourages me. You encourage me because my prayer for Mom to Mom is always that we will pour encouragement into moms and point them Godward. It is a great gift for me when I hear that is happening.

Just three quick examples:

Thank you to the New Hampshire mom who told me that she was so encouraged by some of the quotes from Mom to Mom that she wrote them all over the wall of the room she seemed to find herself spending the most time in—her bathroom! She even showed me a picture to prove it. And believe me, it looked really cool! (She obviously has an artist’s touch).

Thank you to the Texas mom who told me, “Mom to Mom saved my life—and possibly the life of my son!” She went on to tell me that her baby had such bad colic that he cried all the time, night and day. Her husband traveled during the week so she was mostly alone with this baby. “Sometimes I felt as if I just could not survive,” she said. “Being a mom was so very different from what I had expected. But then I would come to Mom to Mom on Wednesdays, and it would get me though the rest of the week till my husband came home Friday night. My son finally outgrew the colic—and now I’m loving being a mom!”

Thank you especially to the precious New Mexico mom who has struggled with cerebral palsy and told me: “This year at Mom to Mom was the first time in my life that I truly felt God’s love—at deeper levels than ever before in my life.” She paused and added, “And you know, Linda, when you know God loves you—really loves you—it changes everything!”

It does, doesn’t it? Change everything—to know God truly, deeply loves you and your family unconditionally and forever?

That’s my prayer for each of you this Thanksgiving: That you will feel His love. And you will know that this is the best reason of all to give thanks!

I echo Paul’s words in Philippians 1:3-4: “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for you, I always pray with joy…”

Thank you! And Happy Thanksgiving!