THINGS WE DO FOR OUR CHILDREN!

I love my children.  I adore how individual and unique each one is.  I love how they are so loving, caring, and even on their best days not perfect.  I am often in awe of them when they accomplish something as simple as remembering how to spell a hard word or even remember their address.  Each day they make me smile with their quirky ideas, fun and silly sides, and overall loving nature.  I love my children because they are mine.  There isn’t too much that I would not try to do for them!

Which leads me to my thoughts for today!  We have been hit with either a bug or a bad case of food poisoning.  Either way all three little ones were away for the weekend and got some upset tummy’s.  The older two were able to over it quickly.  We are on our third day of having the living room set up as “Sickness Command Central” for the little one.  There is a mattress on the floor for Mommy or Daddy to sleep on, extra clothes and wet wipes handy, Gatorade and applesauce at the ready, Germ-X bottles everywhere, and Lysol on standby at all times.  You could say that this isn’t my first rodeo, we have been down this road more times than I care to count.  Yet I do not hold it against my children that they are sick.  I am not upset that I have had to bleach bathrooms daily or wash whites for the third time this week.  There is not much that I would not do to love and care for my children, and that includes sleeping on the hard living room floor for six months if need be!

As a Mom, it is my JOY, yes I mean joy not job, to take care of my children.  If I have to sacrifice something to meet their needs, so be it.  I am, after all, first and foremost a mother.  There are days that I am tired, there are times when I feel alone, there are times when I am frustrated.  During all these times I remember that I am always their mother.  I will do what needs to be done to ensure that my children are happy and healthy.  I will do this to the best of my ability, and I will do this gladly.

As I was laying on the floor with the sick little one snuggled close to my side, his hands clutching me as if I was his life line at 4:00 this morning, I realize that I am modeling love to my children.  If I am willing to sacrifice this little bit of my life for them, maybe they will learn to recognize what real love, what a real sacrifice looks like.  This in turn lead me to think about my Father, God on His throne in Heaven.  How many times do we cling to Him, willing Him to be our lifeline when we are sick or hurting?  How often do we take the time to recognize the sacrifice that He willingly made through the death of His child, Jesus Christ on the cross?  How many times am I truly willing to snuggle down next to Him just to find my rest, to be healed?

I’d like to say that I was perfect and ran to God with everything, never messed up, and of course, never “sinned” anymore; but that would be a major lie!  One thing that I do know is that my Father is always waiting for me.  He delights in me whether I am sick, sad, lonely, happy, silly, and yes even when I mess my life up.  He is always waiting for me, arms wide open, I just need to crawl into His lap and grab a hold of His lifeline.

As I am called upon to snuggle down and sing Jesus Loves Me for the 100^th time today, I hope that I will stop and really think about what that means to me.  As I am asked to clean bathrooms, sanitize the kitchen, and wash yet another load of clothes; I pray that I will do so lovingly and without complaint.  After all, the sacrifice of my time and care cannot compete with the sacrifice of the cross, and just as my Father, I will ask for nothing in return.  I will cherish the time that I get to spend with my children, and pray that I will be the Mama to them that they deserve.  I hope that they will see the love of Christ in me, even on these hard, lonely sick days.

WALKING DOWN MEMORY LANE

I am not a usually sentimental person.  Oh sure, I save a few things that my children have given me, and I have all the love notes and cards that the man that is my wonderful husband has given me in our 17 years together.  BUT, for the most part, I throw away all the little drawings, colored pictures, and refrigerator art that decorates the life of a mom of three little ones.  I have enough clutter in my life, I do not need to keep everything!

Recently, however, the children and I cracked open Mommy’s treasure box, the mysterious hope chest at the foot of my bed.  The children were in awe at what Mommy considered to be treasures.  The ring box from my engagement ring, the shirt that Daddy was wearing when our darling daughter was announced as coming into our loves which just so happened to be the shirt he was wearing when she was born, all their coming home outfits, all their first Christmas outfits.  What a treasure trove of memories.  Oh how the children loved seeing their “past” brought to life by real and tangible items.

This made me think about the verse that is so relevant to our modern “I need more society” which is Matthew 6:21.  I like how the NIV states it, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  I understand that Christ was telling us to store our treasures up in heaven, but it made me stop and think, what is really important to me here on earth?  What are my treasures?

Certainly my husband is a treasure.  He was chosen and made just for me, a person can’t get more precious than that!  All of my children (the ones here and the little one that we are waiting for his big arrival) are all treasures.  They are a reward, a gift from a loving God that gave me the man that is their father!   My family, brothers, sisters, parents, all of them are a treasure.  They have also been gifted to me to enjoy and create lasting memories with.  My friends are treasures because, after all, they are the family that we choose to love!  Perhaps the greatest treasure that I have been given is that of my life in Christ.  I can be me and I am wonderful to Him!  What a treasure that is!

I will continue to purge my gifts from my family and children.  I will continue to store things that are of the utmost importance to me.  I will continue to cherish my friends and family and save mementos of my life to look at as I walk down memory lane.  Let me ask you, what are your treasures?  Where does your heart lie?

SMILES FOR A MOTHER’S HEART

We are homeschooling now.  We are a new homeschooling family that has struggled with many seemingly “easy” issues.  When do we do school?  Why should we do school?  Do we really have to do math?  Is reading all those books really that important?  On and on over the past month the questions have come and on and one I have purposed to persevere through them all.  Yes you have to do school work.  Yes math is important, just like Seth says, “Math explains the world”.  Yes you have to read.  Reading opens the door ways to the imagination and opens your mind to the world.  On and on, day after day, week after week with no end in sight, or so Mommy thought. 

Finally, here at the end of our 5^th week of school, a miracle happened.  Well, maybe not a miracle to the millions of other families that are homeschooling, but a miracle nonetheless to me!  Yesterday we took the day off.  Mommy needed a break, kids needed a break, house needed groceries.  We took our monthly food allowance and headed to two different grocery stores, coupons in hand.  Just for fun I even splurged and bought candy bars.  Something interesting happened when we got home and put everything away, the children still wanted to read.  Ummmm, okay, go ahead.  Next thing I know out comes their school books.  Hmmmm… this is an interesting development.

Now comes my miracle.  This morning I was awakened by the youngest member of our family because he had a bad dream.  After spending the night tossing and turning with feet, hands, and little knees and elbows in my back I gave up and got up.  I was tired and had a headache.  I mentioned this to the other two dear children when they awakened.  Mommy is tired, can we just take the day off?  Their answer:

I want to do math.  Aren’t we going to read our books again today?  Hey Mom, can I do just a little bit of spelling?  Why are we taking today off too, we need to do our school work?

WOW!  Talk about making this mother’s heart smile.  So like the dutiful mother I am, I showered, took some Tylenol, and tackled the day.  Math got done.  Spelling got done.  Reading got done.  And my wonderful son finished reading his first ever “big” chapter book all by himself.  He even told me what he liked about the story and all about the main characters!  What a great day!

When we brought the children home to school them, our main desire was to create in them a love of learning that will last a lifetime.  There have been days that I have prayed and asked God if we were doing the right thing.  Yet, in spite of my doubts and insecurities I pushed forward, hoping that the children would decide to love learning.  Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.”

That has certainly been the case today.  Not only did God direct my paths but He gave me a miracle, a reason for this Mommy’s heart to smile.  I am not naïve, I know that there will be battles in the future.  I know that there will be days when no one wants to do any schooling but we will work to get things done.  But today, today was like a bear hug from an awesome God, and it all came from my children who made this Mommy heart smile.