Celebrating a broken Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day.

Every woman’s favorite holiday, right?

Well, if you’re like a lot of women, Mother’s Day can be downright difficult. So I recorded some (hopefully) encouraging thoughts for you.

If you remember nothing else from this post, remember that ultimately Mother’s Day is about new beginnings.

Birth and rebirth.

If not of physical children, then of dreams . . . of hopes . . . of your heart stories.

Whatever is laboring in your heart this weekend, celebrate that.

Share it with courage.

Believe in the beauty of you.

Afflicted city, storm-battered, unpitied:
I’m about to rebuild you with stones of turquoise,
Lay your foundations with sapphires,
construct your towers with rubies,
Your gates with jewels,
and all your walls with precious stones.
All your children will have God for their teacher—
what a mentor for your children!
You’ll be built solid, grounded in righteousness,
far from any trouble—nothing to fear!
far from terror—it won’t even come close!
If anyone attacks you,
don’t for a moment suppose that I sent them,
And if any should attack,
nothing will come of it . . .
. . . no weapon that can hurt you has ever been forged.
Any accuser who takes you to court
will be dismissed as a liar.
This is what God’s servants can expect.
I’ll see to it that everything works out for the best.
Isaiah 54:13 TMV

On fixing aliens

Meet Mr. Alien.

One of a collection of unlikely superheroes belonging to my son, Mr. Alien suffered a terrible casualty in the throes of terrifying battle.

He lost a finger.

And when you only have three fingers on each hand to start with, one less dooms you to early retirement on the Boys Broken Bench of Toys.

My son fought back tears as he lamented the creatures demise.

Until I offered to fix him.

“You can’t fix him. He won’t be the same.”

“He might have a battle scar, sure, but I can fix him. As sure as my name is Mama, I can fix this guy. I can.”

Skepticism raised one of my son’s eyebrows, as he handed me  the wounded alien and the finger. (See photo for size and scale of what I had to work with here.)

Then I brought out the glue gun.

I positioned the finger in its original spot on the alien’s hand, matching up broken edges as the smell of baking glue signaled it was time for the reanastimosis.

At one point, I dropped the finger on the floor–the dark, brown floor. Luckily, I found it before one of the dogs licked it up. And finally, after much wriggling, tweaking, gluing and re-gluing (and consequential burns on the ends of my fingers), the tiny appendage was fixed in place, and Mr. Alien joined his posse of whole and wholly terrifying alien soldiers.

Of course, this got me thinking–got me thinking I’m crazy, first of all, for gluing a minuscule finger onto an almost-as-miniscule plastic toy. But I’ve been that sort of crazy for a long time. When you’re the mama of three boys, you glue and duct-tape and jerry-rig all kinds of soldiers, action figures and other fighting men together.

More than that, it got me thinking about God.

Why would He bother gluing fragile people together?

People the rest of the world figures are worthless and beyond repair?

People broken beyond perceivable usefulness?

People rended and wounded in places unfixable?

Because He knows you and I are worth it.

To Him, none of us is ever ready for the permanent assignment of warming the eternal Broken Bench.

Often we focus on great, big things in our lives that need fixing.

But God wants to fix little places, too.

He wants every part of us whole and healed.

No matter how small, insignificant, or useless our broken places, they’re always big enough for God to fix.

How has God worked to piece together your precious, broken places?

What broken places can you surrender to Him to heal today?

“So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.” I Peter 5:10

To survivors: a vlog for Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month

Hello! Welcome to my blog today, and my first attempt at “vlogging” — or blogging in a video format. Today’s vlog focuses on raising awareness of and finding hope after sexual assault and/or abuse. April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, and so I hope this video gives someone who needs it the encouragement they might need.

If you need to talk to someone about you or someone you know who’s been through sexual assault, please click on the RAINN button below the video for help and information. Or, share this with a friend who needs it.

Recovery is possible.

You are beautiful.

Indeed, you are a rare gemstone, full of beauty in every angle.

Receiving a gift is like getting a rare gemstone; any way you look at it, you see beauty refracted. Proverbs 17:8 The Message

So, without further ado, here’s my video blog. I’m sure it’s too long. My hair keeps blowing in my face. And it confirms the fact that I’m pretty much a Great. Big. Nerd.