Celebrating Motherhood, Mentoring and Maternal Bonds
May 09, 2020By Jeannine Mitchell
Mother’s Day marks a special time to honor motherhood and maternal bonds. When the word “mother” comes to mind, who and what qualities do you think about? I instantly think of my mother-in-law. She lives out the qualities of generosity, long-suffering, strength, and unconditional love. Galatians 5 mentions additional attributes produced by the Holy Spirit. Have you encountered someone special who treated you with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? I can’t help but feel inspired and filled with gratitude having experienced these qualities from women who have come alongside me over the years.
My husband and I navigated a 5-year season with infertility. I grieved the thought that I would not experience celebrating Mother’s Day. My family life didn’t meet the definition of “Mother”; therefore, I wouldn’t be valued during this annual celebration. Oh, the weight of that belief birthed many tear-filled nights. In the midst of this grieving season, God revealed to me that I still had mothering qualities that could be esteemed in relationships of influence. This perspective change lightened my grief and no longer inhibited me from investing in maternal bonds. God used that season of waiting and grief to strengthen my mothering attributes whether or not I would experience having a child to call my own.
I also carried a false belief about mentors. I thought that in order to be called a mentor, I needed to become a biblical scholar, turn a certain age of maturity, and have life perfected in order to qualify for this revered title. When I started to watch mentoring in action and began to personally experience the benefits of having a mentor in my life, I came to realize that mothering and mentoring isn’t a status to achieve but an attitude to behold.
Equipped with the power of these truths, my responses to challenging experiences started to change. I went from surviving to thriving, from loneliness to leaning in, and from comparing to contentment. Not only did I start to experience a little more patience, gentleness and self-control in my mothering, but at some point, my children’s behaviors also started to reflect these changes. The next generation is watching and learning what it means to “do life” together. We were created for relationship and community. Current physical distancing and stay-at-home orders have created many barriers to doing life together, making it even more important for us to find creative ways to engage socially.
My mentor and I realized the impact she was also having on my children when my 6-year-old daughter asked to join us on a mentoring training retreat. She observed and experienced the value of having someone with more experience cheering me on - someone who loved, listened, encouraged, prayed and pointed me to Jesus. The seeds of truth that were falling on me were taking root and beginning to bloom. The new seeds produced from those blooms were descending onto my little ones. This dynamic will continue throughout our lives and for generations to come. My mentor and mother-in-law didn’t physically give birth to me nor my children, yet they still chose to make maternal bonds with us. This is not only worth honoring and celebrating on this special day, it’s also exciting to know that these relationships hold significant eternal value.
Jeannine Mitchell currently resides in Minnesota with her husband, Josh, their creative daughter and adventurous son. Living in states like California, Idaho, Massachusetts and Minnesota birthed a love for adventure, travel and scrapbooking A cancer diagnosis changed this mama’s call from homeschooling to healing and sharing her rescue story through writing and speaking. She’s passionate about moms, mentoring, prayer and serves on the MORE Mentoring Team.
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