Moments for Mum

with ELISABETH CORCORAN

There’s something that I seem to keep coming back to. It’s the importance of the relationship between my husband and me, and its impact on my kids. 

Some while back, we were sitting in church, with Sara between us. She was holding one of my hands and one of Kevin’s. A few minutes went by and I looked down and realized that she had removed her hands from the equation and had put mine in Kevin’s, leaving them gently resting in her lap. I looked at Kevin and smiled, and looked at Sara sitting there very contentedly.  

I think I take too lightly the significance of my relationship with my husband not only on the future of my children, but on their current level of security and happiness. The other day, Kevin was teasing me about something and I was sending plenty back and Kevin asked Sara: "You’re on my side, right, Sara?", to which she replied, with more wisdom than I could hardly believe: "I’m on both your sides." 

She’s on both our sides. And she should never be put in a situation where she has to choose. She’s on both our sides because she loves us equally, and loves that we’re together, and loves that we’re a family, and, without her even being able to name it, loves that she feels completely secure that those facts about her life will never change.  

So, Mums, work on your marriage. You were called to your role as a wife long before your role as a mother, and you will still be a wife when the children have grown up. Today, think of one thing you can do to build into your relationship … not just for you, not just for your husband, but for your kids. So they can rest and grow and laugh – and live in sweet assurance that they can always and forever be on both your sides.

• Elisabeth Corcoran is the author of Calm in My Chaos: Encouragement for a Mom’s Weary Soul. She is wife to Kevin, and mum to Sara, 8, and Jack, 6. Her passion is encouraging women and she fulfils that through heading up the Women’s Ministries on staff at Blackberry Creek Community Church in Aurora, Illinois and writing and speaking as much as she can. Calm in My Chaos (2001) can be purchased via www.kregel.com or amazon.com. Her second book, In Search of Calm: Renewal for a Mother’s Heart, will be coming out soon.

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