This past Mother's Day, my pastor brought his mom on stage and asked her to share tidbits of wisdom she'd passed to him throughout the years. The best was when he said his mother would tell him: "Everyone loves you, and if they don't, they're stupid." The audience howled, as you can imagine, but as she spoke that morning, what became clear was that this mama knew how to encourage her son.
The world can be an evil place; a scary place; a dangerous place. When it comes to thinking about the safety of our children in this world, our minds often instantly turn to senseless tragedies in recent years like the Columbine or the massacre in Sandy Hook, CT, where so many innocent children lost their lives in school, a place where we assume our children are going to be safe from all harm. How many of us heard the news that day, filled with such anguish and empathy towards those hurting parents, and immediately sought out our own kids-- to hold, maybe just a little tighter than usual?
I remember when we received the news that we were going to have a little girl. It was a mix of joy and anxiety. I was excited about the opportunity, but I was really nervous about the weight of having a daughter.
