Moms at the Well (eBook)
176 Seiten
IVP Bible Studies (Verlag)
978-1-5140-0679-5 (ISBN)
Tara Edelschick (EdD, Harvard) is a teacher, a writer, mother of three, and grandmother. For three decades, she has worked as an educator, teaching public high school students in New York, graduate students at Harvard's School of Education, homeschoolers in Massachusetts, and incarcerated men taking college courses through the Emerson Prison Initiative. In her church, you can find her speaking at a women's conference or marriage retreat, teaching Sunday school, gathering mothers for prayer and Bible study, or leading retreats for families.
Introduction
We always wanted to be mothers, yet neither of us was sure it would ever happen. For Kathy, it was because she was the “unmarriageable” daughter. For Tara, it was because her first baby was stillborn. So when God gave us children, we were delighted and grateful. As women with doctorates in human development, we thought we were going to be great mothers, mothers who didn’t exhibit the sin patterns of our mothers and grandmothers, mothers who didn’t yell or criticize or worry, mothers who would write the book on how to be great moms.
And then . . .
Motherhood hit.
If you saw us in our worst moments, you would agree that we are not the women to write about how to be great moms. Motherhood has been one of the most challenging experiences we’ve faced. Kathy calls the fourteen years of parenting three young children her “dark night of the soul.” Tara’s children say she has “dictator syndrome,” often when she is struggling to believe that God is trustworthy to care for her children. Motherhood has stripped us bare, exposing our deepest fears and failures. Yet God has also used motherhood to transform our lives. In the midst of all of motherhood’s highs and lows, Jesus invited us on a journey of spiritual transformation, deeper and deeper into his transforming love.
This Bible study, therefore, is not filled with advice on how to be a better mother. There are a ton of great books out there to help you do that; this just isn’t one of them. Instead, by studying the lives of biblical women, especially mothers, we will meet the God who invites us into a process of spiritual transformation that takes place in five steps:
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1. God meets us where we are.
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2. God welcomes us into honest conversation.
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3. God calls us to trust and obey.
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4. God transforms us and sets us free.
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5. God invites us to be agents of shalom.
What do you notice about these five steps? That’s right—they all start with God. As we’ll discover, God meets us where we are and then initiates every step along the way, allowing us to say yes or no to each invitation. While these steps are not necessarily linear—after all, God is never constrained by a formula—we’ve been surprised by how often they show up in the stories we read in Scripture, as well as in our own lives and experiences.
If you, like some of the women we will study, aren’t always sure that God is good and can be trusted, that’s okay. Getting to know God and God’s character is what this Bible study series is all about. While God’s love can feel more tangible when life is sweet, these studies help us experience God’s good news for us when we feel afraid, angry, envious, or just plain miserable.
Motherhood gives us the chance to experience God’s transformative love in the midst of both the highs and the lows. Jesus will be there through the joy of wobbly first steps, the warmth of cuddles, and the pride of watching your child accomplish something she never thought she could. And he will be there through sleepless nights and temper tantrums, anxious days waiting for a scary diagnosis, angry fights when your teen breaks curfew, and anguish as your adult child’s marriage struggles. Jesus promises his transformational presence and love in the midst of it all.
What a great promise! Not only for us as individuals, but for our children, our communities, and our world. As God’s love transforms our individual lives, we become agents of God’s kingdom, joining God’s mission of shalom—the biblical vision of harmony and wholeness for the whole world.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE
We surveyed over seven hundred moms to better understand their experiences of motherhood and how those experiences affected their faith. These moms ranged in age from twenty-three to more than sixty years old, and had anywhere from one to seven children. Twenty-four percent of them were single, adoptive, divorced, or fostering parents; nearly 40 percent were women of color. To better understand our survey results, we conducted in-depth interviews with more than a dozen women. Each of their stories was unique, shaped by their personalities and histories, and each was inspirational. And yet each of them, along with our survey respondents, expressed different ways that motherhood was difficult, really difficult.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE
| WHEN ASKED TO DESCRIBE THE HARDEST PARTS OF PARENTING, THE MOST COMMON RESPONSES SOUND LIKE THOSE FROM THESE EIGHT RESPONDENTS: |
| 1. | I don’t have other mothers with whom I can share what’s really going on with me and my family. It’s lonely. |
| 2. | I used to be so close to God. But after children, I don’t have time to do what I used to do. |
| 3. | The amount of worry I have for my children can take my breath away. |
| 4. | The gospel that is preached is too thin to help me navigate my experience of motherhood. |
| 5. | I never know if God thinks I am being too lenient or too strict, working too much or too little, etc. |
| 6. | I can’t balance it all, and I feel like I am failing at everything. |
| 7. | I have so little control over my temper, my children’s decisions, and their safety—and I feel vulnerable. |
| 8. | I see my own sin in my children and I feel hopeless to change it. |
From our surveys and interviews, we learned that moms struggle with worry, escapism, comparison, anger, a desire for control, and even feelings of heartbreak. Perhaps not surprising, moms found it difficult to connect with God amid these struggles. They couldn’t find time to pray or read the Bible. Many felt hopeless about some aspect of parenting, and some even said they found parenting so difficult it caused them to doubt the existence of God. The women in our survey expressed a longing to experience God’s transformational love in the midst of some really tough stuff.
Maybe you share that longing as well. If so, you are not alone, and these studies are for you.
MEETING AT THE WELL
Because loneliness in mothering was reported by the majority of the women who took our survey, we’ve designed the studies in this book to be enjoyed with a friend or small group. We think of the studies as a way for moms to gather at the well.
In ancient times (and in many places in the world today) women spent large parts of their day at wells, drawing water for their families. They needed water for drinking, cleaning, and watering their animals and crops. Getting this life-saving water took work. Wells were usually located outside of town: every morning women walked the path to the well, balancing a large clay jar on their head or shoulders. They drew water from the deep well, then carried the even heavier jar home. But the difficult work had its upsides; it provided a social time as friends and neighbors walked together, took turns drawing water, and enjoyed each other’s company.
We have our own wells, places where moms gather regularly: at playgroups and playgrounds; on sidelines and in bleachers; in break rooms and waiting rooms; at band concerts and PTA fundraisers; and in our living rooms and church basements for Bible study and prayer. When these “wells” are healthy, we are seen and heard, encouraged and challenged. We find the water we need to get us and our families through the next day.
These wells are also great places to meet God. This shouldn’t surprise us: God was always meeting women at wells. The Bible uses several different words to describe places to get water; wells, springs, and fountains are present from Genesis to Revelation, and God shows up at them all. God found Hagar at a well when she fled abuse. God orchestrated Rebekah’s marriage to Isaac when...
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 30.4.2024 |
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| Sprache | englisch |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum |
| ISBN-10 | 1-5140-0679-0 / 1514006790 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-5140-0679-5 / 9781514006795 |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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