Morning Lord. It’s a lovely day today, beautiful sunshine, not as much wind as yesterday, a hint of summer in the air. I think I’ll take Nathan to the playground this afternoon, but in the meantime I’m taking a brief time-out to check in with you.
Thank you for the blessings of yesterday. I really enjoyed Bible Study again and am finding the stories other women share about their own motherhood experience really great. Not all of their stories are positive, but they are real, and no one is pretending to be anything other than they are – something I sometimes find church people to not be very good at.
Libby had once again prepared a great session where we talked about the opportunities that motherhood gives us to teach our children about you. I know I’m not particularly good at this in a structured way, but Libby really encouraged us to worry less about this but instead take inspiration from Deuteronomy 11: 18 and 19. I’m writing it down to remind me:
“Fix these words of mine in you hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
Libby encouraged us to talk to our children in a casual way as part of what we do every day and I sort of like this idea. She also said that your word (rather than our words) have an eternity about them. She quoted Isaiah 55: 10 and 11 that I don’t remember ever hearing before…so I’m writing these verses down as well:
“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Libby blows me away with her biblical knowledge and it really struck me how I’m not likely to be able to speak your word into the lives of my children if I don’t know it in the first place, so I know I need to read and study more. It’s funny, a while ago this thought would have made me feel guilty and inadequate. Now I just want to grow with you.
We also had a very interesting discussion about Halloween and about the challenges of managing our children’s desire to go trick or treating. Of course when I was growing up no one went trick or treating at all so it wasn’t an issue – but I guess this is another example of an opportunity to teach our children all sorts of things – about history, about culture, about making choices that may be different from other people – maybe even about not being judgmental of the choices of others.
Be with our family, Lord, and give me the wisdom I need to be a good mother to my lovely little children…well, at least they are lovely most of time!
Amen