Sharon Autry (left) and Laurie Hilliard

Exhausted and defeated on yet another afternoon several years ago, Laurie Hilliard held her infant daughter while her toddler son played beside her. No matter how hard she straightened and cleaned, she couldn't get ahead. Clothes and toys were everywhere. Weary from baby babble, she longed for a little adult conversation. For so long I wanted to be a mom, she thought. Yet now that I'm here, I wish I were somewhere else.

Through tears in her eyes, she glanced down at her baby's chubby hands and felt God speaking to her.

"Older people always came up to me in the grocery store and told me, 'You better enjoy those kids, honey. It goes by in a hurry,'" Laurie says. "And I'd think, You must have forgotten how hard this is! I don't have a life! But in that moment, I realized it was true. I thought, These precious hands won't feel like this forever. God began to change my perspective. He showed me that now is the time to enjoy my children and invest in their lives. He didn't want me to miss it because I was longing for tomorrow."

Today a mom of four, Laurie looks back on that moment as the beginning of her desire to not only embrace her role as mom but to help other moms thrive. Along with her younger sister, Sharon Autry (a mom of three), she began singing and speaking at local mops (Mothers of Preschoolers) groups near her home in Whitesboro, Texas.

The sisters' message resounded because Laurie and Sharon, who labeled their ministry 2MOMS, told women that it was okay to admit that motherhood can be difficult and unsatisfying. At the same time, it's a noble calling. "There's such freedom in hearing that you're normal to feel it's hard," Sharon says. "Yet we began to sense an urgency to encourage moms to embrace right where they're at so they don't miss out on moldable moments with their kids."

Their husbands soon witnessed that Laurie and Sharon were making an impact. Then, in 2002, Sharon's husband, Pat, proposed an idea: What if both families took their message of hope and inspiration on the road? In 10 weeks the families transformed two 1986 charter buses into 325-square-foot homes, complete with a small living and kitchen area (which includes a full-size fridge), triple-decker bunk-beds for the kids, a bathroom, and a master bedroom.

In that first year, the Hilliards and Autrys logged 10,000 miles on the buses, homeschooling their children while speaking to women at 100 different venues. Since then they've visited a total of 40 states. At conferences they encourage moms to prioritize their marriages and take regular time away with their spouses to recoup.

At the core of their message is a desire to pass on to moms the same priorities Laurie and Sharon's father, Hank Lovejoy, gave to them as children. "He said his main goal in life was to give his children a foundation of faith they could build the rest of their lives on," Laurie says. "That's what we want for our own kids—and what we want to share with other moms."

It's possible to begin building that foundation even in the earliest years, Laurie says. "It starts with letting God be real in everyday things. Acknowledging him as the creator of a beautiful sunset, in the trees, grass or flowers—things that are tangible. Thank God for those things. Do your children see you praying and reading your Bible? Do you pray with them? God has to be real with the mom before he can be real to the child."

Laurie and Sharon also are aware of what often unintentionally prevents moms today from investing in their kids spiritual formation: being too busy. The sisters encourage moms to think about how many hours they'll spend in the car for each child's extra-curricular activities. "The peer pressure to have your kids in a bunch of activities is huge," Laurie says. "Yet if your highest goals are to teach your children how to be generous, and kind—those issues of the heart—when are you going to do that? Ask God to help you see clearly what your kids need to be involved in and how much they need to be home."

It's in making such decisions—along with the daily, sometimes mundane task of meeting a child's needs—that a foundation of faith is built, Laurie says. "I want moms to be encouraged that it's in those moments that children begin to know they can trust their mom and the God she tells them about."

Adds Sharon, "When you invest in the lives of your children, you're storing up for yourselves treasures in heaven no one can touch."

Corrie Cutrer is a stay-at-home mom and freelance writer who lives near St. Louis, Missouri. Laurie Lovejoy Hilliard and Sharon Lovejoy Autry are authors of Mom … and Loving It! (2005) and Hold You, Mommy: Moments with God for Moms on the Go, which releases in May (both Bethany House). For more information, visit www.2moms.com.

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