Wednesday 15 January 2014

Mama-watching...

On Sunday morning I sat down at the dining table armed with my essentials... Heidi was down for her nap, Ava was contentedly playing with her puzzles and I knew I had a twenty minute window to spend some much needed time with the Lord. Weekends are always trickier I find... The routine is out the window and the days fly by... there is no opportunity to find a quiet space, and so I must make do with a little company.

So I sat down and began to read. Right now, I'm working through John Stott's "Through the Bible, Through the Year" and enjoying the structure of following a book. In the madness of life with two small children, structure is good. The opportunity to see the big picture of the Bible... how it all fits together... how it all points to Jesus.


Within seconds of sitting down, I became conscious of a little person setting herself down on her chair beside me, and whipping out a similar book. She flicked through the pages and rested on one of her favourite Bible stories.

I smiled to myself and continued reading. I took a sip from my tea... she reached down, lifted an invisible cup and quietly made a sipping sound. I looked across. Her eyes were down on the book. She was not attention seeking... she was simply copying! I ran my finger across the page... she ran her little index finger across the line of black letters she is still unable to read. Eyes still down. She was totally unaware I was watching her.

As I sat and read and prayed I began to see that these formative years are so precious. Here was my two year old, sitting next to me with her bible open, sipping her "cup of tea" and running her fingers along life-giving words. She is my little mimic, something which horrifies me at times when I see myself reflected; my phrases, my frustrated words and my attitudes. But what an opportunity - to model to her the daily discipline of soaking myself in God's word, sitting at the feet of the Saviour, filling up by Word and Spirit. What an honour, what a joy, what a responsibility... 


And so I was reminded again of the great and joy-filled responsibility of motherhood. To teach my children what is true, what is noble, what is right, what is pure, what is lovely and what is admirable... to point them to Jesus.

And what better place to start than by filling my own mind with these things?

6 comments:

  1. I like this so much I think I broke the like button.

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  2. This is so lovely x

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  3. What a challenge! Tried it today with my 2 year old around... We did pretty well until she decided she wanted to write on my paper (my Bible) instead of her colouring book! Definitely a habit I want to cultivate this year though, so thank you. :) xx

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  4. Adorable but also so challenging to be reminded so visibly that our children are little sponges for every action we take and every word we say.

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  5. Oh what a wonderful post! It gives me so much hope for the future. These littles learn so much from copying us, and while we are all sinners and can't pretend otherwise, it reinforces how important it is for us to show the that we read and study the Bible.

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