A Mary Moment Monday post
The toughest critic many of us face as wives, mothers, and women in general are fellow females. We are our own worst enemies.
Even so, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather call on a dreary morning than the older mom-friend I have who always insists I come over. When I get good news, my best friend gets at least one excited text, and often a phone call, too. And if I need a shoulder, I have a short list of ladies who are on-call.
I’ve come to realize, especially since becoming a mother, that the challenges of womanhood are bigger than my ability to deal with them alone. I love my husband, and he is truly my best friend, but he’s not a girlfriend.
After a weekend at the Behold Conference, I can’t help but think of Mary as Our Lady of Girlfriends. I feel this way after I spend any amount of time with groups of God-fearing, humor-loving, faith-sharing women.
Surely Mary felt the sting of her fellow women. She was an unmarried mother in a time and place when that was not accepted.
She said yes, not only to the glory, but to the pain and sorrow that she might not have even suspected. She said yes to the joy of holding a bundle of boy joy, and she said yes to the horror of watching him scorned throughout his life. She said yes to the wonder of motherhood, and she said yes to the trials of motherhood.
I can’t help but think, though I have no proof, that Mary must have had at least one good girlfriend. She must have had someone who encouraged her in prayer, who she could be “real” around, who appreciated the lady beyond the pedestal (because surely there was such a person).
There are many times when I find myself inspired by the women around me, and they inevitably make me think of Mary. She was probably the kind of friend you could always count on, the one who would sit up with you at night, would always pick up the phone (or lean over the fence, as the time period called for), would pray for you even when you hadn’t asked for it.
I picture Mary as the perfect girlfriend for a cup of tea or a glass of wine or even a mug of beer. I see her equally as well in jeans and a comfy sweatshirt, cigarette in hand, as I do in a lovely evening gown with sparkly earrings.
She’s one of us, after all, in all the best ways. And to top it off, she leads us closer to Christ!
image credit: MorgueFile
Here at Snoring Scholar, you'll find marriage and motherhood, book talk and rambling remarks, observations and distractions, in the midst of life in rural Ohio on a farm, with kids, critters, and Catholic flair.
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