Monthly Challenge - May

 

(Click on the graphic to get a copy to save to your computer for your own use.)

If you don’t know what the challenges are about, please read the first one. :-)

This month quite a few people around the world will be observing Mother’s Day so it seemed like a good idea to include that somehow in the challenge – but not in the way you might expect since these challenges are intended to push us outside our usual boxes. :-)

The challenges –

---------------------------

Finish a project you have been working on.

And/Or

Send an encouraging card/note to or do something nice for a lady who has no children or who recently lost her mother or a child.

---------------------------

Finishing an unfinished project is usually a good thing to push towards.  I know I have plenty of “scope for the imagination” on that one!  I just need to choose which one (or ones) I’m going to address.  I’m not putting any specs on this.  It could be something you started yesterday or 10 years ago.  It can be something fun or something you really didn’t want to do.  Just get it done if at all possible! :-)

What we do for the lady who has no children or lost her mother/child is meant to be something cheerful and/or comforting.  A sympathy card may be appropriate in some cases where a mother or child died, but don’t send words of sympathy to the childless lady unless you know her very well and know that is what she needs.  (And don’t forget the single childless ladies.)  (For further reading on childless ladies: A Word to “The Mother Club” On Behalf of the Hurting Ones Outside.)

Please don’t write about all your problems or how cute your own kids are or how great your mother is.  Try to be cheerful.  Try to show compassion without emphasizing what she doesn’t have.  This is especially important this month, even though the goal is not necessarily to send something before Mother’s Day.  Use scripture, a hymn, an uplifting poem or a devotional thought if you can’t think of what to write.  You could print something from the internet that was a blessing to you.  Or, if she lives near by, you could take her some flowers from your garden, some homemade treat or some fruit.  Invite her over for tea or take her out for coffee. :-)  She may be a lady you know would appreciate just spending time with your children and you, so share your kids.  But, be sure to pray about it.  You know the Lord is interested in us doing these things, right?  If we ask for His help, He will direct us.  He knows exactly what she needs and He is always ready to help us obey His word.

Romans 12:10  Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

===========================

Update on the April Challenge.

My husband and I didn’t manage to do any exploring till last Saturday, which obviously was May 2nd.  Oh well, it was still fun.  We started by going down Blessing Ranch Rd., which isn’t too far from where we live.  Isn’t that a neat name?  I wonder what Blessing Ranch was like back in the day.  Was it really a blessing to the people who named it?  Or was that their last name?  Maybe I can learn something through Google.  Anyway, we wandered on some back roads and learned a little more about our “neck of the woods”. :-)  I still hope to visit a shop, café, or somewhere that we’ve never been in before.  More later on that if we do.