The school year is officially in session, along with the juggling of activities and priorities. These words stopped me in my tracks today:
Christian parenting is a pastoral pursuit, not an organizational challenge.
This is a very easy trap to fall into because the more children you have the more difficult it is to keep them clean and clothed and fed. Just the basics of life are a full-time job.
Dry-erase boards and chore charts are all well and good, but they do not change the fact that what you have on your hands is children, not an organizational problem.
As their mother I am responsible to see them individually even when they are presenting themselves to me en masse.
Sacrifice your peace for their fun, your clean kitchen for their help cracking eggs, your quiet moment for their long retelling of a dream… (Loving the Little Years)
So often I fail at this and treat them like a herd, or worse, soldiers that need to react to my every command. I pray for a heart to know them and love them well, eyes willing to stop and see them. Really see them. And grace to respond to them individually instead of collectively.
JMU