Two Brave Women - A Mother's Day Post

I saw two brave women today. 

One was walking her dog, and the other was driving a garbage truck. 

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Yesterday, four men shot another man in my neighborhood. As I looked longingly out the window at the sunshine and felt the cool air of the morning, I wondered if it was safe to take my daily walk. The latest news reports were inconclusive, and it sounded like at least some of the suspects were still at large. That’s when I saw my neighbor, walking her dog up the road like she does every day. Her presence was a comfort to me. It said, “This is my neighborhood, and criminals and thugs aren’t going to keep me from enjoying it.” In light of the recent crime, she was brave, and I admired her.


I saw the next brave woman in a most unexpected place—behind the wheel of a garbage truck. As I hauled the recycling bin out one morning, I saw the noisy rattletrap coming down the hill. Because I appreciate my trash men, I always make an effort to smile and wave at them. Pausing as the truck approached, I stopped in surprise as I caught a glimpse of a bright smile, curly hair, and gold hoop earrings on the very attractive lady behind the wheel. 

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 She was definitely a female in a man’s world, and I chuckled as the man riding the tailgate shouted and waved his arms to direct her to her next turn. Her presence reminded me of the many women who braved social pressure, family disapproval, and economic barriers to prove that women were intelligent enough to serve in male-dominated professions.

Today the brave women aren’t the ones going to work. They’re the ones staying home. 

They’re saying no to the latest electronics, newest cars, or biggest house so they can be ones raising their children. They want to be the ones who hold them when they cry, discipline them when they sin, and instruct them in the ways of the Lord. 

Many of these stay at home moms endure the ridicule of colleagues who scold them for wasting their intelligence by staying home. They resist the pressure of family members who comment that finances wouldn’t be so tight if they’d just go back to work. And on bad days, they refuse to listen to the discontent in their own hearts that remind them they could be doing something more high profile and glamorous. 

All moms are brave, and many don’t have the option to stay home and raise their children. The purpose of this post isn’t to condemn them. It takes great courage to juggle a job and all the responsibilities that come with committed parenting, especially single parenting.

My intent today is to give a shout out to all the mothers who are serving their families in relative obscurity, day in and day out, with

little recognition. Be encouraged. Oswald Chambers, in My Utmost for His Highest, says this: “It is one thing to go through a crisis grandly, but another thing to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, no one paying the remotest attention to us. 

“It takes God’s Spirit in us to make us so absolutely humanly his that we are utterly unnoticeable. The test of the human life,” Chambers says, “is not success, but faithfulness in human life as it actually is.” 

You’re investing your best time and talent in children with impressionable hearts, eager minds, and eternal souls. They will one day take their places in the world, and you will have given them the tools with which to glorify God through their lives. Be encouraged with God’s words today and press on, claiming the promise of Galatians 6:9 that you will reap a harvest if you don’t give up. 

 “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them” (Hebrews 6:10). 

Happy Mother’s Day.

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