It's Wednesday night...Got to cook for the family, feed the kids, clean the kids from feeding the kids and then it is off to make the kitchen look like something that didn't get hit by a Texas tornado. In the midst of cleaning the kitchen, wiping little faces and hands what was on their faces and in the kitchen somehow got all over my outfit. So it is off to change clothes only to realize that the jeans are still in the washer, because I stopped laundry to cook dinner. So now it is a wet washcloth and quick "spot" clean instead. Load the kids in the car and drive with the air on high pointed at my pants so the spots will dry before I walk into church.

Pull into church spots still on pants. So I flip the mirror on my visor down to see if maybe I can fix my hair because I don't remember looking in the mirror since I brushed my teeth this morning....or did I even brush my teeth this morning....In contemplating my teeth I realize part of my sons dinner got on my shoulder when I lifted him out of his high chair....GREAT! Now I have spotty wet pants and spaghetti all over my shirt...and teeth that well....Let's just all pretend they got brushed ok!

Go into church frazled from the day. Walk in to find a handful of teens (ok not a handful there was two) hanging out in the lobby. As I walk in I am thinking "Lord really how am I supposed to be cool and relevant to these kids when I can't even keep any part of me clean!"

Bryan would preach his heart out to 2 teenagers in a room with 50 chairs. Bryan had decided to put the 50 chairs out in the room to stir up their faith. To me though it just made our two seem even smaller in the sea of chairs. I would try to connect with them but neither one of the two liked me to much. I felt like I spoke Spanish and they spoke a language that the world didn't know or even knew existed. We would turn out the lights in our then youth room and I would look at the 50 chairs and ask myself "Lord I know you have me here for a reason but why? These kids don't even like me! I am not cool enough. I am not smart enough."

The Lord spoke to me in those moments and said this in my heart: "I am not calling you to be cool enough and I am not calling you to be smart enough....I am calling you to mother a generation."

Something happened in my heart that night....I determined that anyone the Lord sent us I would be their mom.

What is a mother?
A mother is one who brings forth life. They are protectors and the responders to the children's cries in the night. Comforter of any and all injuries. She reminds them why they are great. She cleans, cooks, drives, directs, nurtures, protects and listens.


Ever since that moment I am mom. I am mom to any and all kids. Not to take the place of their natural mom, but to rather mother them in the spiritual. I love them, comfort them, believe in them, stand by them, stick up for them and most of all never give up on them.

All of this is leading me to this last Tuesday. Our interns and staff surprised us with an amazing gift and a wonderful card. The card was each intern's little one liner of what we meant to them. Tonight....The night before conference....I am being mom....my counters are lined with baked goods for my student babies...I am up praying for them thinking about them...reading their card at the kitchen counter and crying.....and remembering back to wet spotted jeans and spaghetti stained shirts.....

My heart full of gratitude that I didn't quit when it looked like we were not making progress. Hundreds have come to our student ministry since then....There has been a lot of hard times, but there has been a lot of happy times to....Moments that will forever be written on my heart.....

Some only have children born out of their womb...I thankfully get the honor and the privilege of birthing hundreds out of my heart....I am thankful to be...mom.