October 22

November 5

November 19

December 3

January 7

January 21

February 4

February 18

March 4

March 18

April 1

April 15

May 6

May 20

~ Please bring your completed registration forms and a check for the registration fee.  You will receive a small discount for registering before the month is over.

~ Please bring loose change if you plan to buy craft supplies.

~ Don’t forget to help your kids honor their MOPPETS teachers with a card, baked goodie, or small gift.

7:00-9:00pm

Stephanie Walter’s House

(Call her at 761-9689 for directions)

Come join in the Christmas fun!
Please bring your favorite finger food to share, and also bring a Christmas ornament (max $8) for the ornament exchange.
This event is for moms only (and nursing babies, if necessary).

Friday, October 30

11AM – 1PM

Fellowship Hall at

Wake Crossroads

Contact Jennifer Lavrack for more info: jennifer@ncreo.net

October 2nd

9:00-11:30

Our 2009-2010 MOPS year is about to start!  As you may know, there are many changes to MOPS this year as a result of the new addition at WCRBC.  We are hosting this Open House so that you can have a preview of what to expect when MOPS begins.

Drop by and see the new space, see the new check in procedure, find your child’s class, and pick up your welcome packet and letter.

Please park at the Children’s Entrance to the church. If you enter from Forestville Road, this entrance is behind the building.

Feel free to invite other interested moms who are neighbors and friends. They can get more information and even register for MOPS at the Open House!  You can also go ahead and pay your fall dues if you’d like.

Welcome mommies! You’re here. Presumably your children are somewhere else, and you are sitting childless at your first MOPs meeting of the year, getting to read without any little ones demanding your attention. It’s probably only 9ish, and I imagine you feel like you’ve been up for hours. Who are we kidding… most of us HAVE been up for hours at this point! Ever feel like you’re on a roller coaster, holding on for dear life? Maybe even this morning- just trying to get out the door with dressed and fed children- oh yeah, and Mommy at least dressed, too? Our MOPs theme for the 2008-2009 year is of a theme park persuasion, “Adventures in Mothering”. How appropriate! We’ve birthed our own little amusement parks.

Think about a roller coaster… the normal calmly enjoyable parts of the ride where you scoot along and observe those around you, the slow anticipation of reaching the top of a climb, and that point of no return at the top- oh how that applies to so many mommy moments from conception on! And the many thoughts crammed into those quick moments of release when you are diving down the decline at death-defying speeds- both the moments of exhilaration combined with, “What have I doooonnnne… what was I thiiiiiinkiiiiing…” I’ve forgotten- am I talking about the roller coaster or motherhood?

Every day is a roller coaster in motherhood- there are so many lovely applications along the way. I set out this summer to cross a week (ONE week) off of my calendar to cancel all events, stay home, and potty train my son. I figured I had waited until after he was 3 years old, so this should be a piece of cake. I had talked to so many friends and read so many books. I was ready. I had a plan. As I write this 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, TEN weeks and oh so many plans later, I can proudly and exhaustedly say- we just this week have moved from a mommy-trained stage (no accidents as long as MOMMY gets him to the potty often enough) to the potty-trained stage… ahhh. Maybe. Never have I felt so defeated as in these last ten weeks. Ten weeks of the slow climb of positive anticipations of success, mixed with literally screaming down the declines such as shutting down a gym to have our accident cleaned up, and those nice normal roundabouts of weeks on end with no progress but no major setbacks. And now I look at my eager 2 year old daughter and tell her, “Just poop in your diaper right now please honey” because I have nothing left right now. What roller coasters have you traveled on with your children lately? The first weeks of stretching feedings and sleep for your infant (and yourself)? Nursing- just nursing period- need I say more? Even just the choice between nursing/pumping/formula/etc. WHAT a roller coaster. I nursed both children for up to 9 and 11 months, but can I just tell you- I have had the sickliest children on this earth!? If breast milk is supposed to build their immune systems, then had I not nursed them, my children would not be alive today.  I digress.

Can you look back over each roller coaster experience and see how you and your family have survived each challenge? Can you see God’s hand in it? Because it’s there. He’s there. God saved me and my son with something I initially swore I would never use, because I thought they were a scam- pull-ups. They have saved my son’s life these last ten weeks, because I don’t think I could have controlled my selfish anger any longer had I had to clean up one more accident after our first two-three weeks in underwear. I jest, but we all have moments, probably everyday, where that mother’s-strength, that mother’s-intuition kicks in and we handle something so well! Those moments are there. Look hard. And we know that was not US- not our strength- not our wisdom- but the grace of God on us as mothers. And in turn there are moments where we did NOT handle things well and we are left only with a prayer to God (stolen from a longer prayer that Dobson uses in so many of his writings); “Lord, as you provided the fish and the loaves to feed the five thousand hungry people, now take my meager effort and use it to bless my family. Make up for the things I do wrong. Satisfy the needs I have not met. Compensate for my blunders and mistakes. Wrap your great arms around my children, and draw them close to you.” Because guess what, Ladies! We don’t have to be everything for our children. Only God can be that for our children.

I started out writing about a roller coaster and so let me try and tie this all back in. I challenge you to pray for the Lord’s wisdom and guidance to sustain you on this roller coaster, do what you know to be godly and in His will, and then ENJOY the roller coaster… because when we get off and move on to the next ride, these babies will be all grown up and it will be too late to make the most of these years. (I am writing SO much more to myself then I am to any of you.) We won’t know what is godly and in His will, unless we ARE His, and spending time daily getting to know the Lord; reading His Word and conversing with Him in prayer. But hear me that those things are not enough short of salvation. I pray that you will walk away from MOPs meetings lifted up; lifted by the wonderful women you will build relationships with, lifted by the refreshing downtime you had, yes- away from your children, and most of all lifted by a relationship that you are seeking or growing in with the Lord, wherever you might be on that journey. Don’t walk away today and leave your questions unanswered. Come to your MOPs leaders and let us encourage and challenge you on this journey… on this roller coaster ride, if you will.

-Brenden Williamson

My life is about to go through a major change. My youngest child recently turned five years-old, and I will no longer have a preschooler beginning this fall. Am I ready for these changes? For a life without preschoolers, a house without diapers, sippy cups, or cute bath toys? For the past eight years, I have also been involved in Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS). I have given an enormous amount of time and energy to the program in the last three years as the coordinator. But now it is time to step down from that role. Am I ready for this change? Am I ready to give up my involvement in MOPS, to give up planning for meetings, greeting new moms, and being a part of a team? It doesn’t matter if I am or if I am not. The time is right. I am not sure what lies ahead for me. It is a little scary, but I am optimistic. I am certain that life will continue to change. I am entering the “lost teeth, car pooling, sports practice” stage, but even that is temporary. Before I know it, I will be in the “Can I borrow the car, Mom?” stage. (I’m starting to panic now!) And then there will be an empty nest, college, weddings, and grandchildren. Yes, life is always changing. But God will walk with me through all of these changes as well. He will never leave me.

MOPS of Wake Cross Roads will also be going through a change. The group will welcome a new coordinator, Melinda Parks, and several new steering members. Melinda is married and has two young children. She has been in MOPS for three years and has many MOPS years ahead of her! She is enthusiastic about her new role and is already working hard for the moms. Melinda is a good change for the group. Even so, many things will not change at MOPS, and one of those is God’s presence and work in the group. Just as He is a constant in my life, He will be a constant at MOPS. He will lead Melinda during her time in leadership just as He has led me. MOPS will be a fun, encouraging, instructive morning for all who attend as the Lord continues to bless it.

I am coming to peace with change, although it can be hard. God offers me peace because of who He is – a God who loves and cares for me (and you!) so much that He came to earth to give His own life for us so that we may be saved. Change is inevitable for all of us. But we can persevere through change and even delight in it when Jesus is our Savior. Don’t walk through changes alone. Ask God to be with you. Let a new relationship with Jesus Christ be the biggest, best change in your life!

“Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8

By Alison Lawson, MOPS of WCR Coordinator, 2005-2008

 What priority do you keep in your direct line of sight? There can be only one. Everything else is in your peripheral vision as a result.

Are you focused on your preschoolers, and therefore put your spiritual life and your husband into your peripheral vision? Are you focused on your children’s intellectual or physical development, and therefore put their spiritual development into your peripheral vision? Are you focused on a needy child, or a new baby, and therefore put your other children into your peripheral vision? Are you focused on the freedom you lost when you had your first child, and therefore put your new reality into your peripheral vision? Oooo, that’s a good one! Don’t we all do this at times!?

There was a time, before kids, before marriage even, when I found it necessary to conquer this issue of proper focus. I had hit a rock-bottom low in my spiritual and emotional life through a desperate search for a soul-mate/spouse, and realized I needed to take boyfriends and selfish desires off of my pedestal, out of my focus or my direct line of sight, and line my sight up with God and His desires for me and my life. By doing that, I accepted the fact that His desires may not even be for me to have a companion! What a freeing thought there for a while, after being so consumed by that search for a soul-mate. I spent some time truly getting to know the author of my soul, Jesus Christ, and putting him up on that pedestal that I had kept my personal desires on for so long. By focusing on Him, I put everything else in my peripheral vision, where it belonged. Christ can handle my life, and by focusing on Him, everything else He desires for my life will fall into place in His time and in His way. Sounds so simple and strong and impressive, doesn’t it!? Keep reading.

I met my husband at this time of proper focus. We were both content with our single lives and went kicking and screaming on a blind date to get his mother (yes, you heard me right ladies, his mother) off of our backs. Marriage put a man back in my line of sight and it’s been a struggle for 8 years to keep him in my peripheral and the Lord my focus, but my marriage is certainly healthier when I get it right! I can tell you that the times that one would think SHOULD have brought me personally into the Lord’s arms for refuge, have at times made me a bitter and bull-headed woman, because I was again focused on my own desires. Times like having no success even with fertility treatments trying to conceive our first child, while those around us were having baby after baby. Or my first child’s early birth at 29 weeks and his subsequent rough start. I was bull-headed enough even to conceive a 2^nd child, 7 months later, with no question of God’s Will, but the personal desire to “do it right this time” and “show Him”. I love my daughter dearly and know the Lord ordained that pregnancy (although not my attitude) by allowing it to happen. But if we were Native American, her name would be something like, “Mommy shakes her fist at God, and God laughs and grants her wish.” If I had my focus on Christ, those circumstances would have most likely been the same, but boy, the way I received them and handled them and touched those around me could have been SO different.

I share that to say this- making Christ your focus is not a one-time action. It is a daily commitment to be constantly renewed, through time spent with the Lord in prayer and Bible study and fellowship with other Christians. If you are not a Christian and have not come to a point in your life where you recognize your sin for what it is- something you cannot work your way out of… if you have not accepted God’s offer of Christ as your bridge to Him, then you are simply not capable of putting Christ in your direct line of sight, because you do not know Him. That is a simple thing to fix. You can talk to Him right now as you read this and surrender your life to His leadership by confessing those sins, committing to turn from your deliberate actions of sin, and asking Him to be your Lord and Savior, your new focus. 

Line Him up today ladies! What a relief to know you-do-not-have-to-do-it-all. Do it for yourself, for your marriage, and for your children. He will give you His desires for your heart… He will show you what He has in store for your life and change you to desire those things and not your own personal selfish and sinful desires.

Psalm 37:3-9; Trust, Dwell, Delight, Commit, Trust, REST

Look it up.

-Brenden Williamson (DGL)

johnandbrenden@gmail.com