...the best sorts of Mothering

Like a mother with her children You will comfort us each day,
giving guidance on our journey, as we seek to find our way.
When we walk through fiery trials, You will help us take a stand;
when we pass through troubled waters, You hold out Your tender hand.

—Jann Aldredge-Clanton 

My ideas of good mothering have matured along with me, being shaped by the act of mothering itself, moving from theory to practice and from toddling to dancing. Okay, okay...so, there  may  only be minutes that my mothering approaches the lithe grace of dancing, but you know what I mean. As my maturity as a mother has increased, I have grown to trust more in the preparedness, capability, and potential of my children, and to see my role as less of a rescuer. I’ve learned to provide more guidance and support  than unsolicited direction and dictation. And it is more and more evident to me that presence in the storms of life is to be desired over protection from any discomfort. Somehow I bet life is not through teaching me, either. 

When I look at the ways God loves me, I see the tender strength and steadfast presence of a Mother come through. Comfort, Guide, Courage, Presence—God embodies the best sorts of Mothering. And whether we had a mother who did for us, or not—imagine what it would feel like to know that we all have a God who mothers us so well.

Thanks be to our good God, whose love never fails. 

...be like

Gracious Spirit, dwell with me, I would gracious be;

help me now thy grace to see, I would be like thee;

and, with words that help and heal, thy life would mine reveal;

and, with actions bold and meek, for Christ my Savior speak.

---Thomas Toke Lynch, 1855

One of my favorite movies as a child was Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book. A soundtrack highlight for me was the scat jazz ‘I Wanna Be Like You’, sung by the masterful Louis Prima and penned by Richard and Robert Sherman. In the chorus, King Louie sings,

            Oh, ooh-bee-doo, I wanna be like you-hu-hu,

            I wanna walk like you, talk like you, too…

Now, in the movie, King Louie had his own reasons for wanting to be like Mowgli. But I thought about this song when I read this verse of today’s hymn for Children’s Sabbath.

I thought of it because, as a follower of Jesus, there is nothing I want more than to be like Jesus. I want to walk ( and live) in the way of Jesus; I want to talk (and love) in the way of Jesus. ‘I would gracious be;’ I want to live my whole life letting my words, my actions, my intentions be motivated and guided by the gift of love that has surrounded me from birth.

How will I live if I know that I am representing Jesus to the world? I want Jesus to speak through my life by my actions, bold in love and meek when honoring others. I want to show Jesus’ life in mine, through words that help and heal, in a world where words often tear down and injure, or where silence causes wounds of its own.

Gracious spirit, dwell with me, I would gracious be…

I wanna walk like you, talk like you, too…

...refuge and strength

Though the earth give way
When the mountains sway
If the seas heave and roar
When I can't stand more---
God is our refuge and strength
A help ever present, we won't be afraid.
God is our refuge and strength
We'll dwell near you all of our days.
---from Psalm 46/para.laca.

No matter how the world changes under our feet...our God walks beside us.

Click below to hear the song setting of this Psalm paraphrase...

Though the Earth Give Way

...hide me

Jesus, Lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly,

while the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high;

hide me, O my Savior hide, till the storm of life is past;

safe into the haven guide, O receive my soul at last.

Other refuge have I none; hangs my helpless soul on thee;

leave, ah! leave me not alone, still support and comfort me.

All my trust on thee is stayed, all my help from thee I bring;

cover my defenseless head with the shadow of thy wing.

---Charles Wesley, 1738

Sometimes we need to face the difficult circumstances in our lives, to fight the good fight, to stand and deliver. And sometimes we need to hide. This text is about those times. What comfort is present in these images, of Jesus as a lover and nurturer of what is most tender in us! What safety, to fly to the bosom of God, there to be held in the shadow of God’s wing, like a mother bird gathering and protecting her chicks with her very life. What a grace to be in relationship with a God who provides both the courage for living, and refuge for resting.

Hide me.

...present help for a changed earth

On this day four years ago, storms of fierce intensity ripped through Alabama, making it one of the largest outbreaks of super-tornadoes in state history. Indeed, the period of April 25-28 marked one of the most violent super-tornado outbreaks in recorded US history. On that day, the earth changed, very literally; but more than that, perhaps, peoples' psychic topography was forever altered. There was a seismic shift that day in the way many of us viewed security, permanence, and the future.

The question, then, becomes, 'Where do we turn when the earth changes?' Apparently circumstances may seem new, but questions are not, for the Psalmist looks up from the ruins of a changed earth and seeks what help may be found, a refuge and strength, a help, in a still-mysterious 'God'. We still may.

I am drawn and re-drawn to Psalm 46 when my earth changes. This post originally appeared on September 11, 2013.

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth should change...
     ---from Psalm 46

The world of Psalm 46 is fearsome --- full of natural disasters, the man-made disaster of war, and, most of all, 'change'. When has the earth changed for you? Was it tsunami, wildfire? The Gulf War Syndrome or traumatic brain injury that have followed our fighting men and women home from war? The day we remember today, when terrorists flew planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Towers? The day 50 years ago when cowards in Birmingham set off bombs that took the lives of four little girls, and dogs and fire-hoses were unleashed on the youth of the city? Or has your earth changed more privately? Beloved friend or family member wasting away with cancer? A child wandering away from you? A failure at work or in marriage?

Obviously, our belief in God didn't protect us from these disasters of circumstance, of nature, of hatred, of gaps in medical knowledge; nor were we protected from our questions about how these things happen to 'good' people in God's world.

In this 46th chapter of the Psalms, though, God is described as 'refuge', 'strength', 'help', 'presence', 'with us'. Right here, right now, amid our troubles, God is present with us. When the earth changes, God is with us. When the whole world seems to shake with the portent of evils now or yet to come, God is with us.

Be still; acknowledge God's presence. When we need to hide from the changes and be quiet, God is here --- refuge, strength, help. God is here with us.

...rolling over me

Jesus! What a help in sorrow! While the billows o’er me roll,

Even when my heart is breaking, He my comfort, helps my soul.

Hallelujah! what a Savior! Hallelujah! what a friend!

Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end.

---J. Wilbur Chapman, 1907

While I have spent a few days on beaches in Hawaii and New England, and lived as a child close to the Atlantic beaches and marshy waterways of Charleston, and I’ve enjoyed Atlantic coast vacations from the Carolina barrier islands down to St. Augustine, I’m most familiar with Gulf Coast beaches. I’ve seen the waters stirred up ugly café au lait in front of a storm, foam blowing up onto the sand. I’ve seen them full of jellyfish or stinging nettles, too bothersome to play in. I’ve seen them placid as a lake, glassy green surface reflecting a yellow sun. And occasionally I’ve seen the perfect Gulf beach day, the one from all the tourism ads --- azure sky, sapphire water, dazzling-white sand, even some waves breaking thirty yards out. And while I’ve been knocked down by the surf in Hanauma Bay, and cut to shreds by what passes for sand in the frigid surf on Wingaersheek Beach, this Gulf is my experience of the sea.

So when I picture sea billows rolling over me, I have no context from real life. And so I turn to the beautiful classic surfing films The Endless Summer and Morning of the Earth. Oh. Those billows. Wow. The kind of waves that carry tons of water volume in them, the kind that can crush you. Those. Even when life is doing to my heart what those waves do to surfers who catch the wrong edge, Jesus. Even then, Jesus. When I’ve had to let go control of what happens next --- because, let’s face it, the wave is in control --- even then, Jesus. When I am not sure when the end will be, or which way is up, and I’m not too sure the tumbling will stop, Jesus.

Saving, helping, keeping, loving. To the end.

...though the earth should change

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth should change...
     ---from Psalm 46

The world of Psalm 46 is fearsome --- full of natural disasters, the man-made disaster of war, and, most of all, 'change'. When has the earth changed for you? Was it tsunami, wildfire? The Gulf War Syndrome or Traumatic Brain Injury that have followed our fighting men and women home from war? The darkness we mark today, when terrorists flew planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Centers? The day 50 years ago when cowards in Birmingham set off bombs that took the lives of four little girls, and the dogs and fire-hoses were unleashed on the youth of the city? Or has your earth changed more privately? Beloved friend or family member wasting away with cancer? A child wandering away, or stolen by violence or needless early death? A failure at work or betrayal in marriage?
Obviously, our belief in God didn't protect us from these disasters of circumstance, of nature, of hatred, of gaps in medical knowledge; nor were we protected from our questions about how these things happen to 'good' people in God's world.
In this 46th chapter of Psalms, though, God is described as 'refuge', 'strength', 'help', 'presence', 'with us'. Right here, right now, in the midst of our troubles, God is present with us. When the earth changes, God is with us. When the whole world seems to shake with the portent of evils now or yet to come, God is with us.
Be still; acknowledge God's presence. When we need to hide from the changes and be quiet, God is here --- refuge, strength, help. God is here with us.

...though the earth should change

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth should change...
     ---from Psalm 46

The world of Psalm 46 is fearsome --- full of natural disasters, the man-made disaster of war, and, most of all, 'change'. When has the earth changed for you? Was it tsunami, wildfire? The Gulf War Syndrome or traumatic brain injury that have followed our fighting men and women home from war? The day we remember today, when terrorists flew planes into the twin towers of the world trade centers? The day 50 years ago when cowards in Birmingham set off bombs that took the lives of four little girls, and the dogs and fire-hoses were unleashed on the youth of the city? Or has your earth changed more privately? Beloved friend or family member wasting away with cancer? A child wandering away from you? A failure at work or in marriage?
Obviously, our belief in God didn't protect us from these disasters of circumstance, of nature, of hatred, of gaps in medical knowledge; nor were we protected from our questions about how these things happen to 'good' people in God's world.
In this 46th chapter of Psalm 46, though, God is described as 'refuge', 'strength', 'help', 'presence', 'with us'. Right here, right now, amid our troubles, God is present with us. When the earth changes, God is with us. When the whole world seems to shake with the portent of evils now or yet to come, God is with us.
Be still; acknowledge God's presence. When we need to hide from the changes and be quiet, God is here --- refuge, strength, help. God is here with us.

50 Ways to Celebrate!

Hello, friends! In this month of November, I will turn 50 years old. Now many of you may be asking, "What in the world can I do to make Leigh Anne's birthday memorable?!" Well, I'll tell you! For the 50 days leading up to the big day, I have been doing something small to help make the world around me a little better place, and I'm asking you to join me. The list that follows consists of 50 examples of acts of kindness, ways to invest in your community, from which you might want to choose one. When you have picked an act of kindness, and performed it, you can wish me a happy birthday by reporting on your kindness, either here on the blog or on my facebook page.
I'll have a great birthday month, and we'll all be better for it! If you're ready to roll up your sleeves, read on! And thanks in advance for helping me to make this birthday a really meaningful one!

50 Ways to Celebrate

1. Give blood.
2. Donate to your local food bank. $ go furthest, but peanut butter and tuna are welcome.
3. Donate to domestic violence shelter: working cell phones, black trash bags, bleach.
4. Donate household goods and clothes: ACHR allows eligible clients to shop free.
5. Pay at the drive-through for the next customer in line.
6. Offer to rake an elderly neighbor's yard.
7. Write a note to an old friend with whom you've been out of touch.
8. Tell a family member something you love about them.
9. Apologize sincerely for something you've done, or failed to do.
10. Celebrate someone else's good fortune.
11. Sit and mourn with a grieving person.
12. Thank someone for an uplifting tweet or facebook post.
13. Compliment someone on something other than appearance.
14. Write a letter or email to someone in public service, thanking him or her for their work on behalf of the community.
15. Walk somewhere instead of driving.
16. Listen to a child.
17. Listen to an elderly person, at their pace.
18. Drink water at a meal out, and donate the price of it.
19. Buy a $5 bunch of flowers. Give them to a stranger.
20. Sing a song out loud.
21. Drink a glass of clean, virtually-free tap water, then make a donation to a clean water organization, such as Watering Malawi or Living Waters for the World.
22. Spend 2 hours volunteering@ a school cleanup, assisted-living facility, library, food bak, or Big House.
23. Write a poem.
24. Unload the dishwasher when its not your turn.
25. Vacuum out someone's car for them.
26. Offer to take someone's empty grocery cart to the corral for them.
27. Donate pet food, bleach, or used bed and bath linens to the animal shelter.
28. Hug someone when they need it, even if you don't.
29. Forgive someone who has wronged you.
30. Gather up the change lying around your home, and donate it to a charity. Roll it first.
31. Fill the bird feeder...even if the squirrel will get some.
32. Invest in someone's dream: make a microloan on kiva.org.
33. Pet your cat or dog when you don't feel like it.
34. Return a gentle answer for rude words. Again.
35. Laugh at a bad joke. Someone else's.
36. Smile at a stranger.
37. Let someone else choose the restaurant or activity for the evening.
38. Step out of your comfort zone to make someone else comfortable.
39. Pray about something that does not personally affect you.
40. Sit in a new place @ church, school, or a gathering.
41. Forgive yourself. You can't reach for something better if you are holding tight to your failure.
42. Be open to a new idea or perspective.
43. Leave the laundry or emails. Treat yourself to a few minutes outside.
44. Let someone teach you something.
45. Take a moment to honor the memory of someone you love.
46. Leave an extra tip.
47. Cede control of the remote.
48. Write an encouraging note to someone training in your career field.
49. Carry a sack with you on your walk. Pick up trash along the way.
50. Post a 5th grade picture of yourself on facebook, to encourage a 5th grader you know.