Mother's

There are so many amazing things about being a mother. First of all I never knew how amazingly strong your love for your child would be. Second of all, I never would have guessed the millions of ways that God shows forth His truth that children are blessings. I'm not just blessed because I have the children, I'm blessed in the way they make me view God and the world, the way they sanctify me constantly, and the way they make me think about things I wouldn't normally on my own.

For instance, tonight at dinner, Colin takes one of the kids off for a spanking and Gracie asks me, "What would happen if I took the spanking for ___? Would that be like what Jesus did for me?" I was so preoccupied with the interruption of the child getting disciplined that I was glossing over one of the main reasons we discipline in the first place. Without spankings we wouldn't know the significance of someone else's sacrifice for us. If said child had never known how awful it was to get spanked, what would they care if one of their brothers or sisters took over that spanking? And second of all, the selflessness and love of Jesus to do that for us is an act that was so generous and wonderful. Why would we be so grateful for someone to take our earthly punishment and so negligent to be grateful to our Christ who took our eternal punishment for us?

Part of the joy of this situation was also seeing one of my kids being blessed with a believing mind through faith. Affirmation of the covenant that He gave to us so long ago. Knowing that this is a gift from God above alone for this child that I love so dearly is such an amazing gift to me as well. This gift for this child that I would do just about anything to spare from pain or misery from God who willingly gave His Son into pain and misery so that my child and I could share in this gift.... it truly boggles the mind!

Another added blessing today came via my sons. There was some jealousy over a toy car today that was really upsetting one brother. The other brother came over on his own accord and freely and joyfully offerred up this car to his sad brother! It was so sweet to see him share and love his brother in such a way. Then later, Noah said out of the blue to his daddy, "Would you please read to me a story about Jesus? Read to us about God's love." A heart that loves God and longs to hear more about Him?! What better gift could a mother ask for on such a day?!

Soli Deo Gloria