Karen’s family was just her mom and herself. Dad was
long gone under circumstances that were unpleasant for
Karen and her mom. Karen and her mom had weathered
some rough times together. Separation, divorce and
abandonment created their little family of two.
I’ll never forget one day while Karen was over my house,
spending time with my family - complete with Mom, Dad,
brother, sister and even a live-in Grandmother, that
Karen shared with me how much she liked being around my
family.
“You all are all together.” She said simply. Sometimes
few words are enough.
I
knew what she meant. I, too, had watched my Dad kiss my
Mom in the kitchen and wondered if one day my husband
would do that to me. I, too, had sat down to play the
seemingly 9,231st game of monopoly on family
game night and enjoyed it.
There was a togetherness that kept each of us strong and
a common bond that let each of us know that no matter
what we had a family who loved us and supported us.
One
family night, my parents invited Karen and her mom over
for pizza, popcorn and board games. As we gathered
together, Karen asked if she could say grace.
She
blessed the food, thanked God for the time we had
together and then she thanked God for my parents and how
they had let her little family know that they could be a
part of their big family.
The
little family that could.
Many times we look at single moms or dads and the lives
the live in a high level of stress and struggle and we
wonder how they can make it. Statistically speaking,
many of them don’t thrive very well, but the ones who
have the network of family, friends and a church that
shows them they, a little family, can be a part of a big
family – these little families thrive.
Moms, as we look beyond our homes and reach out in love
and grace to other “little families” we can show them
something wonderful – that they can be the little family
who
Could Succeed
Could Thrive
Could Belong
And Could become
everything God designed them to be.
"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever
you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine,
you did for me.”
Matthew 25:40 NIV
