My Daughter’s 1st Marathon Medal
This past Friday my next-door neighbors, David and Gabi, completed the Jerusalem marathon.
On account of the marathon my kids couldn’t get to school, so they stayed home and made a sign for David and Gabi instead.
The sign read, “Congratulations to our Champion Neighbors upon Completing the Marathon!” and then my kids hung it up on their front door alongside two perky burgundy and silver helium balloons.
When David and Gabi came home from the race around noon, I wiped my hands on my apron and went out with my kids to greet them. They both looking amazing and glowing, like they had just come home from a weekend at a Dead Sea spa and not from running 26.2 miles.
I pointed out the sign that the kids had made for them. David and Gabi leaned in closer to their front door to read the words on the sign, and they chuckled.
And then David turned to my 9-year-old, Moriah, who had helped make the sign, and he asked, “Would you like my medal?”
“What?” Moriah responded in confusion.
“Here, take my medal!” he said, and leaned over with a kind smile and put his hard-earned medal around her neck.
“Really? Are you sure? Thank you so much!” I sputtered in disbelief.
“Thank you so much!” Moriah said, with a wide, glowing smile.
Then we wished David and Gabi a Shabbat Shalom, and went back inside.
As I went back to preparing the chicken soup, I had marathons on my mind.
I thought about how a 26.2 marathon is probably about as demanding as the marathon of mothering and feeding and diapering and family-managing I’ve been running for the past 17 years.
And I also thought about the medal David gave Moriah…And and I thought of a mother’s life.
The Gemara teaches that women merit the World to Come as a reward for two things: rushing their children off to study, and sending their husbands off to learn Torah. Which means helping out our kids and our husbands is our main mission as mothers and wives.
I am the one who fed the baby and cleaned up after lunch and paid the electricity bill and took care of all of the technical aspects that keep this family and home afloat.
And it might appear that as a JewishMOM I am nothing more than an Actress in a Supporting Role.
But in Hashem’s eyes?
Hashem sees me opening the front door when my kids and husband return home from their personal marathons.
And He leans over with a smile and cheers as he places that hard-earned medal around my neck, time and time again.
🙂
The “rushing their children off to study” line caught me. That is one of the hardest things I have to do every day – the morning rush. My two girls need to be out the door at 7:30 every morning and it is so hard for me to remain calm and supportive instead of getting impatient and critical.
It’s nice to know that that is one of the most critical parts of being a JewishMOM.
I also thought of that line. I am a MOMster in the morning. Hopefully with the weather getting better, the morning rush will be more peaceful. It takes so long to bundle them in winter!