I am a mother of four. It was my hearts’ desire from early childhood to be a mom. I played endlessly with dolls while I made believe I was their mommy, and loved to care for them, feed them, change them, and fix their hair. As I grew older and it was no longer “cool” to play with dolls, I came upon the age that I could babysit real babies and children. I still loved to take care of them and play with them, just as I had the baby dolls of my youth.
Many years later I was blessed by Almighty God to become a REAL mom. To have my own babies, toddlers, and now young children and even a pre-teen!- to care for and love. It didn’t take long after bringing home my first baby, to realize that this experience was a lot different from the way I had imagined it as a little girl! It was the most humbling and awe-inspiring time of my life thus far to stare at this amazing and perfect little human being that depended on me for life itself. Yet at the same time it took my breath away to think that I was responsible for this little person that I held in my arms.
To care for and love my children has become the easiest part about being a mom. The child rearing, discipline, and teaching them how to see the world through the eyes of Jesus- this is the real challenge. Each day there are endless life lessons that I have to consciously choose to teach them in the context of our Savior. To try and explain why Jesus doesn’t give the homeless people a house, why there are bad people in the world who hurt others, why a child in their class tells them that Jesus isn’t real and there is no God….there are endless questions like these that they ask as they look up at me with childlike faith. I tell them that I don’t have all the answers, but I try and teach them about the ones the Bible clearly does.
And then last night as the 6 of us came together to do our “Family Night Pray”……Our 6 year old prayed before his Jesus for all the homeless people to have beds, and all the bad people to not be bad anymore, and for his classmate Hailey (who argues with him that God is not real) to start to believe in Him and to read the Bible… And it was all I could do to hold back the tears that welled up in my closed eyes as I felt an indescribable love for my children. I felt an indescribable love for my Maker. And I felt such gratitude to be given the gift of being their mom and to know that they are listening. My work day in and day out within the walls of our house are leading our kids towards Jesus.
~And this is the greatest gift of all about being their Mom~
With Love- April
Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.