"The Help" - A movie with a message

I WON'T SPOIL THE ENDING, PROMISE!

My husband and I enjoy watching movies and I always love seeing movies with a message or movies that make you think.  This past weekend we went to see The Help with some friends.  We had heard a lot about it and only good things and the girls all really wanted to see it :)  I knew that it was about a girl that wrote about "the help", black women from the 70's era, and knew that it would be hard and sad to watch.  However, I had NO CLUE how impacted I would be as a mother.

In this movie one of the questions the girl writing the book asked was "How does it feel raising white children when your own children are at home?"  These women gave their lives for these children and gave them love that would never be forgotten or replaced.  They were the ones caring for them, giving them morals, confidence and self-worth.  Meanwhile, the mothers in the movie treated their children more like accessories than people.  My heart broke for these children but melted for the women that did love and care for them.  As we left the theater I spent a few days reflecting on it and here is what I took away:

1. Being a mother is a gift - Madeline is not owed to me and I do not deserve her and I am not promised to have her forever (I HATE thinking about this, but it's true).  I want to cherish EVERY moment with her and love her and hold her and kiss her.  I don't want to be the mom that is too busy to spend time with her.  This is not a jab at working moms, as a stay at home mom I find myself caught up with cleaning, laundry or errands and just moving Maddie around what I am doing.  Stay at home moms and working moms can both fall into the trap of business.
2. It is my job to care for her - I don't want to pawn the dirty work off on someone else.  When I decided to have a child, I decided to take on the good, the bad, the horribly disgusting, and anything else that came with it.  I can't/don't want to pick and choose when I am involved.
3. I am her teacher  - I am the one that is with her the most and whether I want to or not, I am teaching her and guiding her into the women God wants her to be.  For this reason I want to teach her about God and to love Him but also to be confident, humble, kind, caring, giving, loving, etc.  I am her example and there is a very good chance she will act like me when she's older (Lord help us all, haha!)

These are just a few of my thoughts...I am still working to sort a lot of them out.  I encourage you to go see this movie but be warned, it's hard to watch at times and can be very convicting!