Encouragement: Part 2

Last week, I began a series on encouragement. In that post, I talked about encouraging our children. I hope that you were able to use some of the suggestions and give some positive feedback to your kiddos! {Or the kiddos in your life, if you don’t have any of your own.}

This week, I want to continue that series and focus on a new set of people- single parents. Most single parents I know are moms, but I know there are dads out there as well that have the sole responsibility of taking care of their little ones.

Three of my dearest friends are single moms and I have to say, they are some of the hardest working people I know. There is no one at the end of a long day to bathe the kids, get them ready for bed, or help them when they wake up scared in the middle of the night. When they are sick, it is all on mom. When there are three different soccer practices to attend, it is all on mom.

When Ben went to Africa this summer, I got a miniscule taste of single-motherhood. And it was hard. All three kids got sick at one point during the week (all different times of course!) and I even had my mom to help me the first week and a friend to help me the second week. And I had Ben’s coming home to look forward to at the end of the week.

Single moms don’t have this luxury. The length of their singleness is undetermined. And most of the ones I know do it so happily, and hardly ever complain! Wow.

So what can we do to help them? Here are a few ideas we have been able to implement over the years, and let me tell you- it is fun to bless them!

Offer to keep their kids for a few hours. It is so helpful to be able to go to the grocery store alone, do some cleaning, or just rest!
Pick up a few extra groceries at the store and drop them by. You can even do this anonymously. Diapers are always welcome to moms with babies!
Give up your Starbucks for a month and give them what you would have spent. An extra $20 can help them a lot!
The gift of service. My husband and brother-in-law helped out a single mom a while ago by working on her plumbing.
Send them a card. I realize that there are some people that have nothing left over to give, but we can all carve out a little time to write an encouraging card to tell them we’re praying for them.

The verse I have at the top of this post is so convicting. I believe God had James write the last little part in- “refuse to let the world corrupt you” because he knew that we would be tempted to spend all of our money on wordly things, and as a result having none left over to help those in true need. Ask God how he would have you help!

I’d love to hear other ideas of how to help- or if you’re a single parent yourself, how others have blessed you!