Why 'Mom-And'?

It is, I know, a strange name for a blog. But I need something so catchy, and when I survey blogs all over the internet, I notice that everybody has a blog name that really speaks to who they are.

So yeah. I'm a mom. I have 4 kids, and I've stayed home with them 90% of the time, for a total of 15 years now. The years have been good and challenging and God has graciously allowed me to grow and change in the process. However, as I've approached middle age I have struggled with the same question most people ask at some point in their lives:

What am I actually doing here? 

Indeed, the what is God's will for my life? that I asked dozens of times at age twenty has morphed into a more cosmopolitan version, although its meat is the same:

What has God gifted me for?

You'll allow the preposition to hover illegally at the end of my question in order to ponder it for your own life. And if you are also a Mom, people get to provide an easy answer on your behalf.

Oh, well. You're a Mom. That's your calling.

I've been told that more times than I can count, by well-meaning and thoughtful folks. All the same, in the midst of a time of searching and discouragement, that particular answer doesn't really cut it.

Obviously I'm a Mom. The four people living with me and constantly talking to me bear witness to that. But to say that it's the only thing God has fit me for, that it is my purpose and calling, isn't going to fill the cup of a woman looking for the deeper answer to the question.

I submit that I am a Mom-And. Yes, I'm a Mom, and I'm lucky and privileged to be one. (Thank you, God.) It's a hard job and he teaches me daily how to do it well. But that's not all he has put in me.

Or you. Or anyone.

You can be a Mom-And a warrior. A Mom-And a teacher. A Mom-And a leader. A Mom-And a dreamer. A trailblazer. An adventurer. A paradigm-breaker. You can do all of this and more along with raising your offspring in the way that God leads.

This sentiment is for the Moms among us that are happy being Moms, but aren't afraid to ask for more. And I feel like, when we are asking for stuff that makes his kingdom come, he doesn't mind doling it out in big huge piles.

Mom-And. That's why.