First Day

In my previous blog I was talking about being transparent with people and I believe the word I was actually searching for was authenticity.  To my great surprise I showed up at the first MOPS meeting in Porterville today to find that the topic was just that…..authenticity.   You are so good God!  Authenticity means NOT “faking” it with people.  Now that doesn’t mean that you need to go up to an acquaintance and share your life story, but you do need to ask yourself how real you are with relationships.  The mentor for the MOPS group took this concept a step further and spoke about sacrificial love in authentic relationships.  She described how some of us make the choice to allow our feelings and emotions guide us in our relationships.  But God wants us to have sacrificial love, which might look like sacrificing time, loving when you don’t really want to, speaking kindly when you want to scream at the person, and putting pride aside no matter how a person responds.   Philippians 1:9 reminds us of this:  “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment….”  I am the first to admit that I let my emotions guide how I live and how I respond to people.  Pride gets in the way. But the mentor mentioned that when we allow ourselves to be real and engage in the struggles that relationships have at times, then we can experience the blessings that God has for those relationships.  Some of the most genuine relationships that I have are ones that have struggled.  She challenged us to walk the path of love rather than the path of our feelings.  This is tough for me because I do let my emotions guide me.  But the good news is we can confess our struggles and choose sacrificial love the next time we hit a snag with someone.  I hope to continue to make better choices in this area.

I noticed that on Facebook there are a lot of “first” pictures of kids.  Like the first day of kindergarten, or first day of fourth grade and so on.  I was excited to post a picture of our first day at MOPS.  That is something to celebrate!  I really enjoyed the group in Porterville and am excited to go back again in two weeks.  The group ran similar to the Ashland group and the people were very friendly.  But the biggest celebration is about Mya.  This morning she woke up, got out of bed quickly, and ran to the bathroom to find me in the shower.  She pulled the shower curtain back and yelled, “Mom….today is MOPS.  Don’t forget!”  I think she was more excited than I was.  Then she initiated a conversation about whether or not she would be shy when she went to her classroom.  I told her that she had a choice to go in her room and make friends or to act shy.  So what did she do???  She walked right into her room, smiled at me and told me “Goodbye.”  She spoke to her teachers, made some friends, and came out of the classroom with a big smile on her face.  She has grown the most on this trip socially.  She has been forced to make new friends at the apartment complex, on the city playground, at the library, and at church.  Having her in all these new situations has actually caused her to mature and have confidence in herself.  We are so proud and excited for the choices she is making.