This IS What MOP's is About

This letter was emailed to me from our MOP's (mothers of preschoolers) leader. MOP's is close to my heart because my wife Renee got our MOP's group up and going for the first 2 years. 

Kim's experience is what MOP's is about. What reaching out is about. What letting people see Jesus in us is about. What seeing people as Jesus see's them is about. It's about living out your life and walk w/ Christ in a way that others see and want what you have. Check out this awesome letter:

To all my MOPS moms,

I was never very girlie. I caught spiders, frogs and snakes and asked to keep them. I wrestled and played football. I didn’t wear makeup until I was 16. I bought my first “pretty” bra when I was 20. Slowly I learned it was ok to just be a girl.

Years passed and at 25 I moved here (to Grand Junction) I met Sara (a steering team member in our group) and came to MOPS. Here I found beautiful, strong women. They weren’t prissy or elitist. I didn’t feel like an outcast because I wasn’t “girlie”. Quite opposite. I was encouraged. I became more and more comfortable with attempting to be fashionable. I learned it was perfectly fine for me to like lace and flowers and even pink. And I liked feeling accepted as me, but encouraged to grow. All from women that I was sure, at least in my mind, would have never given me the time of day.

Mops has changed my life. This group has changed my life. Sharing our stories gave me strength and let me know that I wasn’t a bad mom for being frustrated, I wasn’t a bad person for not being perfect all the time. Being around positive women, sharing coffee and decorating picture frames somehow brought me peace. I could leave energized and enlightened with new ideas on how to help my family. I wasn’t stuck alone in my four walls anymore. I had a place to go where I was understood.

When I first moved here, I didn’t pray anymore. I didn’t like religion or church or any organization affiliated with church. I remembered God but didn’t know how to fit HIM into my life. I was uncomfortable even having a religious conversation. I had never even prayed with my kids. Slowly, MOPS helped me remember. MOPS gave me a positive interaction with a church group. I saw a group of happy, healthy families, church goers who weren’t hypocrites. People that put positivity back into religion for me.

My children pray every night. They pray before meals. I pray as I lay down to sleep. And when all answers are exhausted my children hear “Because that’s how God made them”.

If you had met me three years ago, you would not have heard me say those words.

I am grateful to all of you for helping that change.

I say all this because before I say goodbye, I want to say thank you. Thank you for every part you’ve played in my journey. For helping me become more feminine, for offering advice when I was at wits end, for playing and talking when I wanted someone to hang out with. Thank you for helping me find God again.

I won’t promise to remember all your names or all your faces. I will promise to remember the good you’ve helped create in me and the wonderful 3 years we’ve shared. You will all hold a special place in my heart.

ryancook.net

Comments

[Dolores Ferguson]

Thanks Ryan for posting this..and thanks to the Mom that wrote this very candid letter! I'm confident there are many similar testimonies, just relunctant to express themselves. But this is an encouraging and transparent insight to why ministry to parents and children is invaluable...changing the lives of entire families! Go MOPS!...always praying for you!

[Jodecy]

TYVM you've soelvd all my problems