perspective, yet again

i just finished the book 'sacred parenting' by gary thomas. dare i say, it is a must read. it's up there on my top 5 list. it's not a how-to book, rather, 'how raising children shapes our souls'.

i borrowed it from my dad several years ago and attempted to go through it with a mom's group i was a part of. but 5 babies later, we never finished it. i picked it back up when we got to kentucky and i am not sorry that i did. i am reading highlighted parts to matt each night, as i believe he MUST hear some of these things.

as i finished the book, i did so in tears. and i can't shake what he said. it's changed my parenting drastically. he made the mundane God ordained, and made me respect my children more. in what i do for them, how i treat them. for they are God's delight.

listen --

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'For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me. -Matthew 25:35-36

Who gets hungrier than a newly awakened baby, eagerly searching out her mother's breasts? Who is more naked than a recently born child? Who is more a stranger than an infant who comes into this world knowing no one? Who gets sick more often than a little one, who seems inclined toward ear infections, diaper rash, and colic?

When a mother welcomes a child into the world, feeding her and giving her drink and clothing her and holding her when she gets sick (and, at least with the first child, boiling the pacifier when it drops to the floor, and rushing her to the emergency room when her temperature reaches 99.5), she is doing exactly what Jesus tells us will be most rewarded in heaven.

"But how can caring for your own child result in a heavenly reward?" some might ask. "Surely Jesus didn't mean that, did he?"

People who ask such a question don't understand that the children we raise, ultimately speaking, are not ours. God creates each child, and he has such a deep, passionate love for every boy and girl that he never misses a single event in their life: "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40).....

Mothers and fathers, when you give your tiny infant a bath, you are washing God's baby. Pause a moment in your busy day and look up to heaven. When you minister to that youngster, can you imagine God smiling down at you? When you fix that hungry six-year-old a peanut butter sandwich, you are feeding one of God's children. Listen carefully - you may hear God laughing in pleasure. When you hug an adolescent whom others have teased mercilessly at school, you are comforting God's teenager. Are those God's tears dampening your shoulder?

In the process of caring and loving, you bring God great pleasure. At that very moment you become his provision, his comfort, his passion. Learn to swim in that joy, and you will never look at parenting the same way again.

You could have rejected this child. You could have spurned the demands on your time, your resources, and your emotional well being. But instead you accepted this child, through great pain you gave birth to this child, and with even greater pain you make daily sacrifices to love this child. Your heavenly Father doesn't miss a second of this sacrifice. He sees it all. He cries with you and he laughs with you and he takes great joy in the good work you are doing.

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i imagine God looking down at every moment now, taking even more joy in isaiah and alaythia than i do. i want to steward the gifts he's given me well. i want to bask in the joy, and the responsibility, that he's entrusted to me -- two of his children, who he loves so passionately. and it makes me think twice as i get angry or frustrated, they are not mine, they are God's. and he doesn't miss a second....