By Cindy Campbell

If you know me, you know I am an avid fan of the blog "Girltalk" by Carolyn Mahaney and her daughters.  I love the fact that I can be encouraged, challenged and affected by the Lord in my house while I am working throughout my day.

A while back the girls at Girltalk were talking about the different seasons that we experience as women.  They began with teens and how as teenage women we can use that season of our lives for the glory of the Lord and honoring him.  (You can read those posts by clicking http://girltalk.blogs.com/)  They then turned to the single season that we all experience as ladies.  It was a wonderful reminder of that season of my life 29+ years ago.  In a post dated 2.26.09 Carolyn wrote about single women nurturing children.  I have pondered and thought about her words a lot since then.  Here is a snippet of what she posted:

So, how does a single woman enter into the meaning of motherhood if she doesn’t have children of her own?  How does she express her femininity as life-bearer, as nurturer?  Elisabeth Elliot answered this question: 

“A single woman can have children!  She may be a spiritual mother, as was Amy Carmichael [missionary to orphans in India], by the very offering of her singleness, transformed for the good of far more children than a natural mother may produce.”

Single women, you can express your femininity in this season of your life by nurturing other people’s children.

When you babysit, you are giving expression to your femininity.  When you take an interest and reach out to children in your sphere of relationships, you are displaying your God-given gift of femininity. 

And may I say “thank you” on behalf of all of us mothers!  Thank you for the way you nurture our children.  Thank you for the countless times you have served us through babysitting.  Thank you for the way you have loved our children as if they were your very own.  It means so much to us!

However, you are doing more than just blessing us; you are honoring God by giving expression to the nurturing aspect of your femininity

As I ponder this I thought it would be fitting that as the moms of CFC that we thank all the single women (and men!) in our midst who have served us, and nurtured our children.  Thank you for the Godly example that you set before our little ones.  Thank you for living a life that honors the Savior and that we can point you out to our children as some one to follow as you follow the Lord.  Thank you for the creative ways you bring life and laughter into our children’s lives.  Thank you more than we could EVER express for loving our children and for allowing us to attend meetings or go on dates!!  Truly you are some of the greatest servants we know and you are great in our hearts and in the eyes of the Lord.  It is a privilege to be a part of the “Family of God “along side of you!

By Cindy Campbell

I have been reflecting a lot lately about our 25th anniversary. Twenty five years is a long time – about one half of my life and nearly the entire lives of our adult children, which really do not know any other church experience. In many ways, the twenty five years have flown by.  In others, well you know how it goes, they passed slowly. As I have looked back and remembered the past twenty five years, there has been a lot that has transpired in our lives, in the world around us and in the church.

Twenty five years ago, our family moved here from Gaithersburg not because we were in love with Philadelphia, but because of the vision that the Lord had placed in our hearts. Our lives had been radically changed by the truth of the gospel through living our lives in a New Testament church called Gathering of Believers.  That church is now called Covenant Life Church. We belonged to a small group, served in the church, shared our lives with others and were learning to be God-directed parents to our small children.

It was hard to leave our church family and, to be honest, there were times during that first year or so that returning to our friendships and former church looked very appealing.  However, there was truth in our hearts about how the Lord had changed us, and we felt compelled to live and share it with those He would add here in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

It was a lot of work at the beginning with only 14 adults and our children. When there were meetings that needed to happen, chairs to be set up, children to be cared for, meals to be made, people to care for - it was all of us. In those first days, I distinctly remember that when Bill Patton dismissed everyone to “Children’s Ministry,” over half the room got up to leave. We met together to pray for the people the Lord was adding, we talked about how to reach out and share the truth of the gospel with those we were meeting in our neighborhoods and in our daily lives, and we began to share our lives over meals together.  “Love Feast, any one?” or perhaps spaghetti at the Redrup’s?

There are so many memories from those early years as the Lord quickly added people to the church. I think all of the original church planters would agree that no one was more surprised at the growth of Covenant Fellowship Church of Philadelphia than we were. We realized that we were not special or unique in what we were doing, but the Lord was blessing and using our efforts. He was the one who breathed life and truth into those early days. Did we make mistakes? You bet we did! But did we grow, change and learn to laugh at ourselves more? You bet we did! The one thing that remained the same during those early years and to this day was the unending and unchanging faithfulness of our great God. We experienced, lived, and witnessed the truth that He never changes and that all that He does is for our good and His glory.

Looking back, there have been many people added to our church family. Some have stayed for a short season and then moved on.  Many others are still around today. We have shared in the life of the church together, gotten married, added children, experienced the passing of time and some have gone home to be with the Lord. We all look a bit older, but hopefully we have been changed over these past twenty five years.  By God’s grace, we have just a little more wisdom from our life experiences and trials. Many of our children are grown now, some are married and have begun families of their own, but we are so grateful that this next generation has begun to step up and take ownership of this church; the baton is being passed. I see my own older children serving in the church, in love with the Savior and passionate about building their lives for the Lord. It doesn’t get better than that!

Twenty five years of His faithfulness is something to celebrate together. In the blink of an eye, we will be celebrating 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 years together. We can count on the fact that God’s faithfulness will never change and, as we have seen, experienced, and celebrated, His grace and mercy will be what we can celebrate together on each and every anniversary to come.

You have always been faithful
And You will always be good
You’ll never let us go, We’ll never be alone
You have always been faithful

Last Sunday night I spent the evening with my married girls. We included Lauren this time, since she will marry our Joey in a few short weeks. The purpose of the evening was to discuss a wonderful sermon by pastor and author J.R. Miller called, “The Christian Wife.” Although he died in the early 1900’s and the standards and vocabulary can seem a little out of date to today’s sophisticated Christian woman, the truths are timeless, inspiring and convicting. (If you want to get a copy of the sermon follow the link to the MetroMoms blog)

Preparing for this time together with a married daughter, two daughters-in-law, and a future daughter-in-law caused me once again to realize I’m on the back nine. But my heart and desire as a mother remains the same as when my approaching 30 daughter was the age of your little ones. Back then I wanted her to love being a girl. Love God’s wise and loving design in making her distinctly female, with all the responsibilities and privileges that entails. She was surrounded by brothers (until God mercifully gave her sisters some years later) and although she enjoyed playing with match box cars and didn’t mind getting dirty while playing outside, she was all girl.

I wanted her to grow up to embrace godly womanhood. To resist cultural pulls to feminism and resenting her created design to be a suitable helper to a husband and a godly mother to children, should the Lord give them to her. I wanted to do my best to equip her to be an effective home manager.

By God’s grace, Jaime loves being a mom. And now she longs for the same things for Kayla, Annie and Danae that I prayed would be her heart’s desire.

But she still needs the help, encouragement, correction and Titus 2 mentoring of others. At 3 she needed my help to learn to make her bed. At 7 we “used” her baby sister to teach her to bathe, burp and comfort a newborn. At 10 she needed help to understand why lying about cheating on her home school work was a reflection of her sinful jealousy over having to work harder on math than her older brother. At 15 it took time and long talks to help her understand why it was important to be honest with her temptations and sins, even when she was embarrassed. And at 18 she needed help to deal again with those same issues, especially when her lack of humility resulted in needing to apply the gospel when unmortified sin made life rough. (As it does with all of us!)

What am I feeling? I guess I want you to know that what you are doing with your life isn’t just for “this season.” Do you think that once the kids go to school or learn to drive you will have more time for yourself? Do you dream of the days when they will actually respond to your training and stop interrupting, making messes and learn first-time obedience? Realize that laying down your life for your children is a lifetime commitment. The break our culture and our sinful hearts long for will only happen if we give in to the myth of midlife selfishness.

Yes, there are days when I can lounge in the pool for 45 minutes uninterrupted, spend some extra time at lunch with a friend or have a leisurely devotional time without wondering what’s going on in the family room. But according to scripture, my life is not any more my own than yours is. I don’t wake up to nurse babies anymore. I just have trouble falling and staying asleep because I had iced tea with dinner or my hormones are wacky. I don’t get anxious about high fevers or whether I’m doing an adequate job teaching a first grader to read. I battle fearful concerns about whether my kids are adequately battling the worldliness or lust or self-righteousness or discontent that can lead to serious consequences in marriages and families.

I’m here to say that motherhood is a life calling. My role has certainly changed over the decades. What my life looks like is different in many ways. But I remain constrained by the gospel to continue giving my life away to my kids. When the Savior bought me with the price of His sinless blood on the cross, He laid rightful claim to every moment of every day of my life through eternity.

So if you’re waiting for the day when you can “get your life back” (as I recently read one author say about midlife when the kids are grown) please stop. Most of the same sins I battled when I was your age I’m still battling. And the same need I had for God’s strength to give my life away 24/7 then remains my need today.

In fact, it’s time to close this lengthy post. I have wedding rehearsal dinner invitations to address, a youth meeting to attend with 2 of my kids, clothes to move to the dryer, and a son who’s been gone for a week to pick up at the airport.

Lord, thank you for calling me to a life of devotion to others, especially my family. Give me strength to persevere in my battle against the sin that easily lures me to love myself more than I love them. Pour out Your grace on the young moms who are reading this post today. Give them a long term vision for their mothering and protect them from worldly thoughts of getting their lives back. Their lives, and mine, were purchased by you. How foolish to ever want they back!