Green Eyes

It was a beautiful day. We were out at a nearby town with friends and our kids were playing around the fountain. I noticed an older woman, a grandma, slumped over asleep on the bench. She was homeless. As we were going to leave, I went to her, tapped her on the shoulder and offered my leftovers from lunch. "No thank you," she replied, "I already ate." I started to walk away and she said, "Can you just open this water bottle for me?" I opened it, handed it back to her and walked away. I was heartbroken at the thought that this grandma was living out on the street. What if that was my grandma? What has happened in her life that has caused her to be in such a trying situation? James 1:27 says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress..." Why is no one looking after her I wondered? But my real conviction came later, as Niah and I were praying before bed. I was laying with Niah and praying for things that had happened during the day. "Lord I pray for the woman I saw by the fountain today. I pray she would find a warm place to stay tonight. I pray you would protect her while she is on the street, but most importantly, I pray she would know you." I finished with an AMEN and Niah asked, "Mom, what color eyes did the lady have?" "I don't know sweetheart." "Oh, she didn't look at you?" "No, she did, I just didn't look at her eyes." I left Niah's room thinking two things. I offered that lady my lunch without hesitation, but didn't spend enough time to even look in her eyes. And did I tell her that Jesus loves her? No, I was too worried about what the other people in the plaza were thinking. My insecurities of being watched overtook the opportunity for me to tell this lady about Jesus. Niah's innocent question reminded me to not miss opportunities to tell people about Jesus. My super observant 4 year old reminded me to look at people, to pay attention to the details and to find out what color eyes they have. I want to use the gift of helping people that the Holy Spirit has given me to connect with people so they might see a little glimpse of Jesus in me and I can tell them why I choose to help.

Wisdom on Being a Mother

As I returned to my blog today for the first time in a long time, I found this draft tucked away among my other posts. What a gentle reminder for something I was learning months ago that is still so relevant to me today. I have been reading some amazing books on motherhood and parenting lately. The latest that I am reading is called The Mission Of Motherhood, by Sally Clarkson. The purpose of her book is to encourage moms to learn their role, based on God's design, to effectively teach their children to love Jesus. Something I've been thinking about lately is that we are all eternal beings. What we focus on temporally doesn't matter as much as our eternal focus. It is great to have super well behaved kids who listen and follow directions, but what is the state of their hearts? I have pulled a lot from this book, but one thing that I've been trying to wrap my mind around is having grace with our children. Where is the line between showing your kids grace and correcting their misbehavior? Kyle and I have a little joke that serves as a great reminder to practice grace. When one of our kids does something that just doesn't make sense, like when we find our 3 year old pouring one cup of water repeatedly into another, as water is spilling everywhere, we say, "What are you? 3?" It's become a joke for us, but a great reminder of something that Sally Clarkson talks about in her book as well. While we set expectations for behavior in our kids, it's important to remember they are little and immature. If I have never told my 3 year old not to fill her little tea cups up with water, when she spills all over the floor is she being rebellious or disobedient? No, she's being a curious, imaginative 3 year old. So, instead of putting her in time out, screaming at her for making a mess or making her feel guilty for something she doesn't realize is not okay, I need to, with grace, gently take her hand, find a towel and with love and encouragement, teach her to clean up the water. Then we can talk about what happened and whether she should do that again or not.