I’ve briefly mentioned this in a few recent posts, but just to reiterate, the fog of the baby days is starting to lift in the Watson home. Our little people sleep all night, they can talk and communicate. Everyone is potty-trained and most days we can actually reason somewhat with them, which is a billion times better than arguing with a toddler...cause have you ever done that? If you’re a newbie, trust me on this one…you won’t win!!
This stage in our family is a new frontier that I love, but as the kids grow, I can’t help but marvel at the gravity of what it means to not only parent but to truly shepherd a child’s heart. We aren’t just in survival mode anymore trying to make sure that everyone is dry, fed, and alive. We’re able to take family outings, have real conversations and make lasting memories. As the children grow, however, so has my responsibility has their mother.
Naturally, I want my children to be happy, healthy, successful and fulfilled. More than that though, I want them to have a personal relationship with Christ. Not the kind of "personal relationship" that is common vocabulary in Sunday School, but the kind of relationship that becomes the very breath sustaining the life of a soul crushed by the heartbreak and adversities of our broken world.
I want to raise my babies so that I'm not the first call they make when the storms of life begin to rage. I want their relationship with Christ be so real and intimate that they take their burdens to the cross before they ever think to involve me. Of course, I want to help carry their pain, offer maternal wisdom and hold them up in prayer. However, I want to raise them so that if the time ever comes that they choose not to involve me in their grief, I can rest assured that they will be fully protected because they are putting their peace in the hands of the Almighty.
The truth is this: no matter how much I try to protect them, at some point, they will have the worst day of their lives. There will come a time when their security is threatened, their heart is broken, their normal becomes foreign, and their world is turned upside down. It's in those moments that I want to know that they are clinging to the One who can right the wrong, sustain their hope, and breath life back into their weary soul.
My prayer is that as we enter this new territory, I will raise my children so that someday they won't need me. Instead, I want them to grow into men and women who lean whole-heartedly on the everlasting arms of the only one who will never fail them.
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