Thank you friends for the kind words and phone calls. What would a girl do without you all. God put it on my heart to air out my dirty laundry and now I know why. Ladies, we are a group that has needs that aren't being met when it comes to friendship.
I think there is something that needs to be discussed. We have people in our group that do not feel included in our group. Do we have a group? Is it ok to just leave comments on each others blogs and leave it at that? What about when we see them in person?
At the moment my kids are sick, so I can't invite people over or even go to MOPS tomorrow. But I have a job for all of you, we were all armed with the knowledge needed to set a nice place setting at the last meeting, now lets put it to use.
I know that many of you get together with ladies from church as friends, you have their families over for dinner, you get together for lunch, your kids play. I have a challenge for every one of you. I want you all to invite someone that you have never invited over before to hang out, to have dinner, to go shopping, to have a play date.
It is all to easy to fall into patterns of people that you hang out with, I am guilty of it. WE need to open our arms to new people. I have spoken with a few people that called me to support me only to find out that they are just in need of friends and support as I am if not more. Do we really want to lose some fantastic MOPS ladies just because we aren't welcoming on a personal basis?
We are not perfect, there is not a perfect mother out there. We all sin, if there weren't any sinners in the world there wouldn't have been a need for Jesus.
So I know that schedules get busy, things come up, but the next time you are heading to the mall grab the MOPS phone list and make a call. If they say they can't, try again another time.
I know I am on a tangent, and maybe it doesn't make sense, but there is no reason for someone who makes the effort to come to our group not to feel like they belong. Let's be more welcoming. Let's talk about our faults more. We should talk about how our marriages aren't perfect, that our children make us crazy sometimes, that on any other day than Tuesday morning you can find us in sweats and a t-shirt, and that we have no idea where our 2 year old ran off to with our make-up.
If anything I would want our MOPS group to be known as that group of regular old moms. We need to be approachable, including myself.
So there is my tangent and my challenge. I hope you all have a great meeting, I will be here with green boogs, and fevers.
10 comments:
WOW!
I commend you for speaking up and saying what's on your heart. I think it takes real guts to say what you just did.
Thanks for listening today, I appreciate it so freaking much!!!
You are a wonderful person, Kim...uh, I mean, Hosmerita...I'm up for the challenge, o wait, I think I already completed it. J/K, Funny how you brought this up because this is what I talked about with my girls at our tea party this past weekend.
Hmmm, I must not be the ONLY one out there who feels this way!
You are so right. It is so easy to get busy and into our own little world. I'm glad I'm in a new group this year, it's expanding my horizons.
Hmm? A Christmas tea party? If I have it, you WILL come...right?
Hey Kim we sure missed you today. I am soooo sorry you had to be home lovin on the buggers and fever and you weren't with us.
I'm up for the challenge :)
We missed you today. Hope everyone is feeling better soon.
Kim-You are right, I have not allowed myself to venture out and always be inviting new people into my home. My home is always open to anyone. I have struggled with Bryson's Autism and how to manage him, while trying to raise Darian at the same time. When Bryson was so young (2.5 years old), and Darian was just born it was so hard to just get by day to day that having a playdate wasn't even an option. At that point in time I was so alone and isolated because no one else had a child like mine, and no one could possible understand my daily struggles. But sure enough people like Karen, Sharon, Becca and others although they did not understand completely what I was going through (they couldn't they didn't walk in my shoes) when the boys were little, they did extend me the grace of accepting how things were and didn't judge me. Therefore, I felt comfortable with them. Now, the boys are older and things have gotten easier. It's time I did invite some fresh faces over. You are always welcome in my home, and please stop by my office anytime.
I'm not a part of your MOPS group but I can relate to your blog. Sometimes we make it harder on ourselves, and all it takes is just to let someone else in!
I know Becca (so you can talk to her too) but how about if I come to you...when everyone is feeling better...and we have a one on one training session? I'd bring Sawyer, she's 5 and she loves little kids and we can sit over coffee and you can learn first aid?
I don't go to your MOPS group either, but I appreciated your post. I run a moms group at my church and we are just in the baby stages of trying to get more than about 5 moms there each time. We are on the other end of desperately trying to reach out and invite. It's all a struggle isn't it?! But, like someone said to me today - we are all in this together, needing to reach all moms - we're all in crisis at some point with being moms of little ones.
Hope your kids are feeling better. Thank you for opening our eyes and hopefully we all make some changes:)
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