

Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God. Romans 15:7That's when it clicked: I'm not that other family's keeper; but I am my children's keeper. In fact, that's the primary goal of my vocation as their mother. All that time and energy I was willing to invest helping that other family needs to be redirected to my own kids. Yes, I should still have an open door policy for others. But if I haven't kept an open door for my own children first, I'm loosing the focus of my motherhood. I need to be willing to drop what I'm doing to pay attention to what my kids need. Even if what they need seems trivial to me, it matters to them. If I want them to come to me with the big things when they're older, setting the tone now with the little things is imperative. Back when I ran retreats for moms, I constantly talked to the mothers about putting on their own oxygen masks first, before taking care of their kids. If they weren't breathing, they wouldn't be much use to their families. I need to take that a step further for myself. I need to put on my own family's oxygen mask first, before I head out the door to help anyone else.
Copyright 2018 Claire McGarry
About the Author

Claire McGarry
Claire McGarry is the author of the Lenten devotional "With Our Savior," published by Creative Communications for the Family/Bayard, Inc. and Grace in Tension: Discover Peace with Martha and Mary, to be published by Our Sunday Visitor in the fall of 2021. Her freelance work has appeared in various Chicken Soup for the Soul books, Focus on the Family magazine, Catechist magazine, These Days devotional, and Keys for Kids devotional. The founder of MOSAIC of Faith, a ministry with several different programs for mothers and children, she blogs at Shifting My Perspective.
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