Moms' Club--Depression's Cure
These older women must train the younger women to live quietly, to love their husbands and their children, . . . to be sensible and clean minded, spending their time in their own homes, being kind and obedient, . . .so that the Christian faith can't be spoken against by those who know them. Titus 2:4, 5, TLB.
I had always considered depression to be a condition others experienced; but not me. And I had prepared for the year when both of our children went away to school by finding a full-time job to keep myself busy. It didn't work. I had "lost" my two good friends, my two funniest acquaintances, and a big chunk of my favorite full-time job—mothering. It left me depressed!
"God, what would You have me do?" I prayed. Then two statements I had read repeatedly came to my mind: "Let the older women teach the younger" and "let the sorrowful . . . help someone" (Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 266).
Who needed more help than the mothers of young children? Why not share what I was good at—homemaking? The result was a club for community moms to have a time for themselves while someone else cared for their children.
Moms' Club met one morning a week at our church. Sharing time and general conversation followed a short program on anything from haircutting to bread baking. "Grandma's Corner" cared for the children and repeated the Sabbath school kindergarten program. Church women and girls from the church school helped.
My depression "cure" worked. I was the one rewarded for all the effort, as I enjoyed new friends and being in touch with young women and little children.
Of all the many health outreach programs we have had in our congregation, this one paid the richest dividends. Several of the young families were baptized, while others are sending their children to church school. The club met each winter for seven years before "Grandma" wore out in her "corner." It has now been three years since our last meeting. At Vacation Bible School this summer one sixth of the children who attended were Moms' Club kids, some of them only infants when their mothers brought them to the meetings.
"Our work for Christ is to begin with the family in the home. . . . There is no mission field more important than this. . . . Christian homes, established and conducted in accordance with God's plan, are among His most effective agencies for the formation of Christian character and for the advancement of His work" (ibid., pp. 429, 430).
Have you made your home and the homes of others your mission field?
I had always considered depression to be a condition others experienced; but not me. And I had prepared for the year when both of our children went away to school by finding a full-time job to keep myself busy. It didn't work. I had "lost" my two good friends, my two funniest acquaintances, and a big chunk of my favorite full-time job—mothering. It left me depressed!
"God, what would You have me do?" I prayed. Then two statements I had read repeatedly came to my mind: "Let the older women teach the younger" and "let the sorrowful . . . help someone" (Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 266).
Who needed more help than the mothers of young children? Why not share what I was good at—homemaking? The result was a club for community moms to have a time for themselves while someone else cared for their children.
Moms' Club met one morning a week at our church. Sharing time and general conversation followed a short program on anything from haircutting to bread baking. "Grandma's Corner" cared for the children and repeated the Sabbath school kindergarten program. Church women and girls from the church school helped.
My depression "cure" worked. I was the one rewarded for all the effort, as I enjoyed new friends and being in touch with young women and little children.
Of all the many health outreach programs we have had in our congregation, this one paid the richest dividends. Several of the young families were baptized, while others are sending their children to church school. The club met each winter for seven years before "Grandma" wore out in her "corner." It has now been three years since our last meeting. At Vacation Bible School this summer one sixth of the children who attended were Moms' Club kids, some of them only infants when their mothers brought them to the meetings.
"Our work for Christ is to begin with the family in the home. . . . There is no mission field more important than this. . . . Christian homes, established and conducted in accordance with God's plan, are among His most effective agencies for the formation of Christian character and for the advancement of His work" (ibid., pp. 429, 430).
Have you made your home and the homes of others your mission field?
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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