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Showing posts with label daily life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label daily life. Show all posts

September 27, 2012

:the one where we aren't really good at it:

teaching kids to live in love, compromise and show kindness at all cost is hard work. i think it's because we aren't really good at it ourselves, or at least i'm not.



first day of swim class and lieutenant hard-core stands in front, dividing the children into groups. i sit, thinking to myself, i'll be like jesus until she's mean to my kid, then all bets are off. turns out lieutenant hard-core is actually lieutenant teddy-bear but when you've got forty kids in water that do and don't know how to swim, lieutenant hard-core is quite welcome.



he walked by and shoved her bike over for no apparent reason other than he's a boy and boys like to damage things. she cried the cry of one thousand bee stings. i met the little dude on the side walk, eyebrows high, in true mama form.

 it was an accident mommy!
well then help her pick it up buddy.
he did immediately followed by an i'm sorwy eiswy, unprompted.

moments later she was teaching him to ride his bike, cheering peddle durgin! peddle! while jumping up and down.

this back and forth, tossing on the sea of kindness and cruelty, singing hosanna one minute and crucify him the next, never stops, does it?

growing every day, learning to balance the two, taming the latter. bringing every thought into submission until we become like him.

giving without expecting return.
going the extra mile.
turning the other cheek.

we will walk this road together little ones, learning as we go, for two (or three) are better than one.

August 28, 2012

:the one where we are made for more:



the kettle whistles. i pick it up and move to the sink to pour steaming water over fresh coffee, my eyes scan our yard as i wait. i sigh. those darn weeds are growing in the play area again. the area we dug out carefully and covered with mulch for a nice appearance. the area where the slides and playhouse and sandbox reside. weeds. we pull and we spray and they go away for a bit but they always come back. this tending, it gets old.

you aren't welcome weeds, i think as i pull and pluck each one.

i keep a constant eye on that place. searching for any sign of weeds that may arise so that i can step in before there is a full fledged overtaking.

so familiar this turning of words and thoughts. so much like that place that harbors both beauty and bitterness. i tend and pull and tug and stand back admiring the cleanliness. moments later there it is, the ugly. so i tend and pull and tug some more.

constant this dance between forgiven and fallen.

then He whispers ever so quietly, you were made for more sweet child.

made for more.

made for beauty.
made for community.
made for motherhood.
made for love and love making.
made for encouraging and being encouraged.
made for showing forgiveness to a fallen world.
made for laughter and delight.
made for joy

made for more.



*just writing with heather today