Skip to main content

Kids


Kids.

Simple yet so complex. Tears and tantrums and trouble. Imagination. Belly laughs. Learning. With kids there is oh so much learning for everyone involved. They're learning things like colours, numbers, shapes, sharing, and manners. You're learning things like patience, wisdom, gentleness, and perseverance.

Overwhelming.

Children are overwhelming. Their two greatest love languages are time and touch which makes your time their time and your body no longer your own. Personal space is gone. No really, gone.

Overwhelming.

Every moment is a learning opportunity. So your four-year-old wants your help right now but you can't help right now because you're stirring the gravy on the stove: patience. There is only one book and two people want to look at it: sharing. The baby breaks the three-year-old's tractor; controlling anger and forgiveness. Not interrupting while you talk with another adult; respect. Eating all the food on your plate; finishing what you started and being content with what was given you. And in a million other moments you're shaping them into the adults they will become.

Thankfully, in the midst of all the mess and fuss and crazy there are so many blessings. There are I love yous, laughter, and moments when they just "get it". No, they don't get it right away (try toilet training) but they do get it eventually. They connect dots with their own amazing logic. Like that boys are different than girls because they have short hair and pick their noses. That God makes the leaves different colours in the fall because He wants to have a colourful party before it snows. That we could do more if we had eight arms instead of two. That snorting is not polite even if you are a baby.

But perhaps the biggest blessing of all is knowing that these are not your children. These are God's children first and foremost. He has gifted them to you and will use you instrumentally in their lives. But they aren't really yours. So leave them in God's hands, do as He has directed, and pray, pray pray. His grace and spirit are greater than all the frustrations in the world.

I'll leave you with this encouragement from my three-year-old when we were talking about Jesus. We discussed how Jesus loves us, He's sad when we do bad things, and He made the world. Then something clicked and my little guy got excited and said something that we would all do well to remember.

"He has the whole world in His hands and I have the joy, joy, joy, down in my heart!" 



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What Is Your Purpose?

 A couple weeks ago, a young woman asked me, "what is your purpose?" it kind of threw me off. Ok, it really threw me off. It seemed a bit touché to say "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever" when she was looking for specifics. And I get why she's asking. My life does seem pretty random. Thirty-two years old, working on my BA, teaching music part time, working at a coffee shop part time, and living at least an hour from my closest family member. On paper it looks...well...it looks random. I get it. Kind of hard to pull a purpose out of the randomness.  I was talking to the Lord about it because sometimes, even for myself, the person living this life, it's hard to find a specific purpose in the randomness. Sometimes I wonder,  when I get to Heaven if I'm  going to have anything to offer God, if while other people show up with their kids, I'm going to hold out empty hands and say "it's just me." I mean, if He wants soldiers to defeat spiri...

Body Image (1)

Contentedly situated in lawn chairs with our toes in the sand and the baby playing on a blanket at our feet, my friend and I watch her girls digging holes or running between the beach and the lake. Periodically, the girls run up to us to display the shells and rocks they've found. At one point, as the girls surround us, one of us adults comments on the baby being chubby (which she is, as a baby should be) after which one of the girls looks at me and says, "you're kind of chubby." She wasn't trying to be rude or smart, she was just being bluntly observant as children are. As I looked at I her and considered an answer, I thought of the baggage of body image that women have carried for generations, and I thought, I don't want her to carry this baggage too. I want better for her.   I replied, "you know, being a little chubby is actually a good thing. Our bodies function better and it helps keep us warm." This deep lesson was probably lost on her as she s...

Two Worlds, One Family

After reading that title, are you singing the Phil Collins song from Tarzan? I was. In my head. During prayer meeting. The theme for prayer that evening was the 3rd commandment; you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain . We bowed our heads and began praying around the circle. My dear friend sat beside me and prayed for her children and the children of our church. She prayed that they would never a know a day not loving the name of the Lord, that they would cling to Him and honour Him all the days of their lives. I went next. I prayed for my coworkers, so many of them living far, far from God, so many enslaved to sin. I prayed that they would know Jesus, honestly ask Him to forgive them, and then live the rest of their lives loving His name and bringing that Name glory. The same desire spurred our prayers, but the places we dwell in had a huge effect on how we prayed. And that's when that song from my childhood came to mind. The truth is that we are one family, my f...