A Mother Shares It All
By Joanne Sampl
Last night, my husband I drove past the old baseball field. It was filled with three-foot tall children wearing oversized ball caps on their heads and unblemished gloves on their hands. Dads were kneeling on the pitchers’ mounds, and Moms where cheering from the sidelines.
It was definitely a flashback moment for me. My boys are in college now, but I remember the tension in the car before each game. For my eldest son, it always seemed more intense.
“Do you have your glove?”
“Do you have your water bottle?”
“What time does the game start?”
“Do you see your coach?”
The child burst from the car door in the nick of time, while I found a parking spot and lugged the lawn chair, the snack bag, my purse and as much as I could carry to get to a place on the sidelines to watch my son.
“Mom, coach says I can be the pitcher tonight!”
“That’s great, honey. Have fun.”
My son always looked tall for his age, until he stood next to a grown man on the pitching mound. Then, he looked so small. Pitching for him at this level meant standing next to the coach of the other team who was throwing the ball to his players. What a big deal it was for him to be the pitcher.
Sharing victories and struggles is part of being a mom.
A few years later, I was the mom on the sideline of the baseball field with tension that lasted the whole game. My son took the mound as the pitcher. He’d practiced pitching for hours on the side of the house. How I became the “side yard” coach for pitching, I don’t know. But there I was, crouched down with my glove guarding my face catching my son’s pitches as he practiced.
Sharing hopes and dreams is part of being a mom, too.
His team won the first game he pitched. He was ecstatic. I was, too. I wonder if he’ll ever know what it meant to me to share with him what he was going through at the time. If he won every game he pitched, that would be one thing. But, he didn’t. So, we have other memories besides winning we share. We both grew a lot through those times.
Sharing the challenges and disappointments is even part of being a mom.
He’s in college now. He doesn’t have time for sports anymore. He’s holding down a job, trying to get through Chemistry and Calculus, and managing a serious relationship with his girlfriend. He plans to be an engineer, and somewhere in his future, he wants to write a book, continue to write songs and play his guitar, be a father and help others know what Jesus did for him.
Sharing the plans and life purposes is one of the best parts of being a mom.
With Easter just a few weeks ago and Mother’s Day just a few days ahead, I’ve been thinking about the connection. The bible records that Jesus’ mother was there for His first breath and His last breath. As moms, we can empathize with her pain and loss. But she was also there for His Resurrection. Can you imagine the joy in her heart when she found out He was alive again?
Sharing the Resurrection is the absolute best part of being a mom.
If you haven’t told your children – no matter what stage of life they are in – that you are on their team, that you support them and are sharing all the big and little things of life with them, maybe it’s time you told them. And, if your child doesn’t understand about what the Resurrection means for them personally, help them understand that with Jesus they can and will be more than conquerors.
Copyright ©May 6 , 2006– Joanne Cook Sampl. All rights reserved.
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