Treasure

I started this week talking about the glow our children exude.  Like anything that glows, I know that my children are treasures.   In my children there are a series of gifts from God to me.  Babies are God’s most tender, tiny offerings to us.  Designed to break down the walls of our hearts, leaving us open to receive Him.  Until I became a mom, I like to say that I was a tough cookie.  I was practical, rational, not prone to emotional decision making, public displays of affection, and I can’t say I was very empathetic.  

Source

Having a baby changed everything.  Maybe it’s the tsunami of hormones that release a rushing tide of emotions, but suddenly how I saw the world, and any hallmark commercial, resulted in a surge of feeling and the complete demolition of any protective wall I had built up around my heart.  These gifts of life from God’s personal treasure room have time after time made me slow down, hold my breath, come to tears and even drop everything.  They have breathed life into this mother’s heart. 

As difficult, exhausting and all-consuming as it can be to parent little ones, the rewards are far greater if you pause a moment to appreciate the beautiful godly characteristics a child displays daily.    Raising a child is an investment.  You can appreciate all the treasures stored up in a child, that unique creation of God, if you take the time to savor and appreciate each stage, and season and moment of your child’s life. 

Galatians tells me, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”   There are certainly times when I forget that I am caring for little treasures.  Honestly, I can get busy with career, daily struggles, and other commitments, and in my exhaustion have moments when one more cry of “mommy!” can seem like an inconvenience.   There are days when their incessant squabbling, needs and repeated requests can seem like a burden.

I’m human.  My flesh is weak and tired.  And in those moments I have succumbed to wrong thinking.  Because in my heart and mind I know that there is no greater joy, there will be no better time spent than in those precious moments with my children.  I will achieve nothing greater than to see them grown, confident, happy and in full communion with God.  And I will reap no greater rewards or accolades than their confidence, respect and love.

Like each passage in the Bible, the treasures stored up in our children are precious clues to the nature of the God we long to know.  Its pages illuminate His face to us in the truths they reveal to us.  These truths come to life every day in the words and actions of my children.   Truly no words written can explain God’s nature as powerfully as the experiences lived each day with children.