the perfect day

Yes, it was the perfect day! The mountains lit up the sky as the morning sun reflected off their snowcapped peaks. Soon after the colorful sunrise captured my heart, the smell of freshly baking bread in the oven lured me back into the house....After we shared a delightful lunch together, the children finished their schooling and then went outside where the sounds of innocence filled the air. My daughters were busy sweeping out the inside of their "home" while the boys were busy hanging the screens on their "fort". All in all, what once began as a weather worn playhouse this morning, became an object of manly duty and feminine responsibility. I listened through my open window, as I watched each of them escape further and further into a world of make believe!

I wonder if they realize how close they are to the real world...a world full of pain and sorrow, hunger and death, anger and numbness. While having some understanding of a suffering planet, their little lives have largely been protected from the hard reality that lies beyond the backyard gate. Try as I may, I fear that I will not be able to fully prepare them for what is before them. How will I go with them everywhere they venture so that I might explain or soften the blows of what they'll encounter? How will I be able to spread myself equally between each of them in order for their hearts to feel safe when they are going different directions? How will I be able to give them the reassuring look that everything is going to be ok when they are being pressed from every angle? How will I be able to encourage them that God will see to it that "all things work for good"? I know that I cannot. Nor, was I meant to. It is for me to treasure my role now and yet prepare them for the unknown and also for what every Christian knows they must be about....a life spent for others. How am I to do this? It's the simple solution: give them the One who will never leave or forsake them and Who can go with them wherever they go and keep them when no one else can...the One who will lead them in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

If I can prepare them for the great adventure of life that awaits them, yes, the pain and the sorrow included in the grand discoveries, and yet tether their hearts to the Anchor of our souls, then I will have succeeded in my joy. Yes, I meant joy, not my job. You see, my joy is to love and nurture them now and pour into them as much Jesus as I can and then pray that the seed falls on good soil so that one day they will bear much fruit and then be spent for the sake of others. That world that they are so sheltered from now is their mission field. It will be the source of their pain and their joy as they give themselves away.

And as for me? What will become of my days that are spent so full of running hither and yon, baking and cleaning, homeschooling and church, loving and laughing (and crying)? Ah, there can be but one answer. Go with the God who is watching over the little ones that I am watching now. Follow Him as He leads me. Maybe into greener pastures? I doubt it. How could my fields be anymore fruitful than they are now? But, they will be green, I'm sure of it. He is my good Shepherd as He is my children's.

Lord, protect the ones that you have given us to love and care for. Keep them under the shadow of your wings. Guard their way that they may grow to bring glory to your name and bear your image on this earth as they encounter the darkness that lies just ahead. Let them know, even now, that while you were forming them in my womb, you had a plan for each of them and you will be faithful to complete that which you have started. Keep them, fill them, spend them for your kingdom's advancement in the earth so that your name may be praised. Thank you Lord. Amen.