Not only for the smell, but also for the time to think do I love mowing. I have a pretty big yard and it takes me just about two hours to get the whole thing done on my riding lawnmower. It's too loud to listen to music or sermons as I do when running, so what else am I going to do to pass the time but think? :)
What I've been pondering today is motherhood and cherishing my children.
I live in a society that seems to turn from cherishing our children to viewing them as just a possession, a bother, a mistake. True, some days are very hard with my children. Some days I really miss pre-kid time with my husband, but it only lasts for a short while because I make a point of looking at the blessing that they are. The Bible says that children are a blessing. A blessing is a good thing. One to give thanks to the Lord for.
I have been privileged to have two blessings. Others have more, others have less. Each should be a blessing to that family, not a curse. No matter the circumstance in which the child was created, God saw fit to place that child in the care of the parents that are raising him or her. He saw fit to give them life. He saw fit.
I recently was part of a conversation in which someone mentioned a family they know that has 15 children. Most were natural, some were adopted children with a disability. A comment was made about how many children that was! Yes, it is a lot. Yes, our culture looks at it as weird. But God doesn't. He saw fit to bless that family with all 15 of those children. He created every single one of them. He created them to be cherished. Not criticized for existing.
Sometimes I think about the things my husband and I will be able to do after our kids are grown and gone. Sometimes I hear society say the same thing, we think life finally begins after the children move on.
In the past month, I read a blog post (that unfortunately I now can't find) about a woman who worked at a grocery store. So many of the mothers who came in with their children spoke harshly to them while shopping. The author spoke of the need to cherish our children, even on hard days.
It made me really consider that
how I interact with my kids shows how much I cherish them,
even to a stranger.
Who knows what memories a child will retain?
Will mine remember me as a mother who got upset over spilled ice tea on the brand new Lazy-Boy?
Or will they remember me greeting them each morning with a smile because I love them and am eager to see them that day?
Maybe, just maybe, the more I exude an attitude of cherishing them they will remember that. The less I allow myself to be frustrated, maybe they won't remember the times that I forget.
I picked up my current read this morning (Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst) and was transported to a time when she served at a homeless shelter for a week in LA. Sometimes I get bogged down with being a stay-at-home mom. I used to live in an area where I served in a homeless shelter. I can still remember one of the wonderful conversations I had with a woman there. Right now, I don't live in an area with soup kitchens, or homeless shelters. My church is small and doesn't have a whole lot of outreach ministry opportunities that I'm able to help with at this time. I live in a small community and my home is out in the country.
As I was thinking these things and reading this part of the book, my heart longed to be able to do this kind of service again. To serve others with these two hands. To see lives being changed before my eyes.
While reading this book I was nursing my baby and my three year old was happily playing with his plethera of tractors. He made a one of his tractor noises and I glanced up at him playing.
My longing heart swelled.
Right now, he is my ministry. Right now, my nursing baby is my ministry. I can serve these two precious children with these two hands.
I can start by cherishing them.
These are some ways I have been intentional about right now:
1) smile and hug my son, even when he wets the bed for the third time this week and I need to change and wash the sheets, again
2) tenderly help him put items in the shopping cart as we pick out groceries
3) praise him for his efforts in trying to help, even if it spills
4) rejoicing in a crabby baby as a chance to yet again cuddle before she's grown and gone
5) quietly correct disobedience in the presence of others so as not to make him feel ridiculed and embarrassed for his faults (read this in Tedd Tripp's book, Shepherding A Child's Heart)
In what ways do you show your children that you cherish them?
Good reminders Cristen, thank you for posting!
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