My family’s late summer and early fall schedule combines one of my favorite things — watching my kids run — with one of my least favorite things — early mornings. I’m a night owl by nature. My name is one of the great ironies of my life; it’s a time of day I rarely see by choice. These months of 8:00 a.m. practices on our county’s greenway and Saturday meets when we leave home in the dark hours of pre-dawn, however, are made not only bearable but enjoyable by the company of the other runners’ moms and the sweet friendships I’ve made.

On those weekday mornings while our kids run, the moms walk. Individual schedules vary; it’s surprising how different the mom crew might look from day to day. Sometimes there are only two or three of us but on other days we look like a small-but-nonthreatening gang.

On a typical morning I’m slow to get ready, but not on practice days. I throw on exercise clothes, wash my face, brush my teeth, and pull my hair up into a ponytail or tuck it under a cap. These ladies have only seen me once this season on a day when I washed my hair.

Absent is the polish we’ll apply later when we go home and clean up. I wonder how often we as women allow appearance and its trappings to build barriers between us. There are no filters here and it seems to free us.

Please join me today at (in)courage as we talk about seasonal friendships and my sisterhood of cross country moms!

My Early Morning Sisterhood

During my senior year I spent Friday nights under the lights, cheerleading at my high school’s football and basketball games. Our job was to support and encourage the home team, but we spent more time perfecting our cheers and dance routines than studying the nuances of the game. Once a coach gave us a mini clinic to make sure we understood the sport well enough to do the right cheer at the appropriate time.

I no longer fit in those short, pleated skirts or carry a crinkly pair of red and blue pom poms, but parenting and adulthood continually provide opportunities to hone cheerleading skills of a different sort in support of friends, family, and the students I teach one day a week in our Classical Conversations program. Just as often, those same friends and family — and yes, even the students — bless me with the same.

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up . . .
1 Thessalonians 5:11

When my kids were younger, I served as president of our homeschool group. I soon learned that the best way to serve was not to take on more work for myself but to delegate authority to other moms and then step aside and become their cheerleader. If you’re a perfectionist like me, it can be hard to let go, but it allows someone else the chance to shine and it gives you the opportunity to cheer them on with grace and humility.

To read more about cheering on the people in our lives, please visit me today at (in)courage.

Cheering for the Home Team