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.