Growing up I was a part of a
community of women that make up parts of who I am today; my mother, aunts,
cousins, step relatives, and different community members. Most of the women were not Christian, yet
they loved me, protected me, and shared in various responsibilities like discipline
(not punishment), teaching me skills or techniques, or took me for a few days.
I have seen many Christian communities with far less fellowship. Currently, I
am blessed by a group of women I can rely on, in my immediate surroundings all
the way to my home country. But I know
with growing individualism in families, it has brought a division between being
an active or a passive member of the church community. To be clear I am not talking about roles like
punishment and teaching, but being a role model, loving, being helpful in ways
that relieve the mother when she needs two hands (holding a child, or playing
with a child), redirecting the child from potentially dangerous or harmful
situations. Sadly, there is this
attitude in some women today of each mother for herself, almost an “I don’t
need help or to give help to others to survive” approach. How have we allowed this to become acceptable
and ingrained in how we interact within the church and at church activities? I am not saying that people should help to the
point of neglecting their children. Jesus
told us, not just the parents, to take care of the ‘little ones’ (Matthew
18:5-6). This is one of the reasons why
we have baby dedications. Baby
dedications remind us about our call to fulfill this “active” role in the upbringing
of all the children in the church family.
We must not forget we are the body (Romans 12: 4-5) called to work
together, each with their own function but helping one another in those functions. We need to remember that we are not
Christians by birth but by the blood of Jesus.
We’ve been adopted into God’s family, bought at a price. We are His family called to share and grow
together. The early church knew God’s
will for His family and obeyed (Acts 2:42-47).
Let’s come together and be that church, family, community again.
“How good and pleasant it is when brothers [and sisters] live together
in unity.” ~Psalm 133:1
