Celebrating and Serving Single Moms!

The single mom is one of the fastest-growing sects of our population– there are more than 13 million across the United States. Recent studies report that at least fifty percent are classified as low-income. Where are the resources for single moms?  What tangible help is available to her other than government assistance?

We can get real with the love of Jesus and roll up our sleeves to be the answer to a single mom’s needs for friendship, support and tangible help.

Here are 10 ways you can reach the women in your life who are raising their children on their own

1. Pray for them by name. They might be processing a spouse’s death or betrayal or the death of their marriage. But regardless, they need your prayers to help them get through this time. Ask specifically how you can pray – and then do it.

2. Provide handyman help, lawn care, or automotive repair. Without a partner to either do these tasks or the money to have someone else do it, a single mom has little time, energy or ability to handle all these things. Round up your husband, your brother, your life group or your neighbors and get cracking to help with home and car repairs, painting, yardwork and general maintenance.

3. Mentor and love their children. Single moms can’t be everything to their children. Step up and step in to fill the gaps.

4. Give gift cards to grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, Walmart, Amazon, pretty much anywhere. Odds are, money is tight in a new way, and every little bit will help.

5. Invite a single mom and her kids to be a part of your life. Have then over for dinner. Take them along when on a family outing. This goes a long way towards fighting off the loneliness and stigma that single moms feel.

6. Offer to take care of her kids to give a single mom a break. She’s tired!!!

7. Financial mentoring. For some single moms, budgeting and living within tighter constraints is brand new; they could benefit from wise counsel to help them transition.

8. Take a single mom out for coffee or lunch. Without a partner in their daily life, it gets lonely. An hour of adult conversation can go a long way.

9. Surprise your single mom friend with a gift like a mani/pedi, massage, or drop off a home-cooked meal. For the most part, she’s probably not being given gifts or extravagances. A little something special would be a huge joy!

10. Simply check in to see how she’s doing and what she might need. When you don’t know how to help, just ask. Odds are, she will tell you.

Any outreach works – any overture of love and friendship — because it says to that single mom, we see you, we care, you are not alone.

“A new command I give you: Love one another.”

John 13:34