I have a dear online friend. She is inspiring to me. She used to blog and I have to say, it was the most wonderful blog I have ever read.
It was full of grace and love.
She doesn’t blog anymore… I am sad of that, but thankfully I am still able to keep in touch.
A long time ago she shared a recipe with me for this carrot cake, I will ask her if I can share with you… if anyone is interested.
More than the lovely cake, is the wisdom she imparted to me through her recipe. I printed out the whole recipe with the commentary throughout. This weekend as I prepared to make this cake for our church homecoming celebration, I was reminded of that loveliness.
Like I spoke of last week, I want my children to enjoy time together with me and their father. To enjoy simple pleasures and be content with little or much.
Saturday started much the same as every Saturday. We each awoke when rested. Shannon and I are usually always the first. We had our Quiet time with the Lord and made coffee. We sat and chatted with one another around the kitchen table. In the early stillness.
Laughter.
Smiles.
Special moments.
We were greeted by the children, one by one… rising, stretching, yawning, sidling up beside us… eager for those *first thing in the morning, messy bed head hugs*.
We had devotion as a family, made a quick breakfast of fried eggs and toast.
Afterwards, we set about at our tasks for the day.
The girls and I went to work in the kitchen, we try to cook a lot of food when there are meals to share at church. Planning, baking, cleaning as we go.
The boys and Dad headed out to the garage to purge, clean and organize. A long overdue and not so glamorous job.
We didn’t go to the amusement park, or to the movies, or shopping… but I promise, I don’t think we could have had a better time at any place than we did here at home, working together.
Shannon and I are in agreement that we eagerly want to be parents that our kids enjoy being around. That we want them to learn and grow and enjoy work and play. Saturday was a beautiful example of that.
As I read through my friends recipe that day, with those encouraging words of…
Enjoy your children.
Smile at them!
Love them!
Savor the moments….
It was almost serendipitous, but I know better. It was just a confirmation from the Lord that, yes… you are doing a good thing. You have been given you a brief time to raise them. To train them.
The whole day went this way. Let me say this, it was not perfect… there were moments of testing. We had to be parents! Times of correction are always necessary, because not everything is permissible. That comes with the territory. Correct, in love.
In the evening, when we sat down to our meal that we had created we had a time of thankfulness and appreciation.
We call this our High and Low. We mention if there was a rough part of the day… the low obviously, and then a High part of the day.
You might think, why even mention the low?? Keep it all positive. Well, sometimes if we mention that something happened and it was our low point of the day, it reminds us that yeah, bad things happen. Low times occur, every moment is not always rosy, that’s just part of life…. but then we have the HIGH, too!!!
Our high moment is something we all share, we can be excited for one another. We can encourage one another.
Do you know what most of the children’s *high* points were?
Eldest Daughter- Spending most of the day with Mom in the kitchen.
Eldest Son- Helping Dad today
Youngest Daughter- Being with Mom and my Sister a lot today
Youngest Son- Working with my Dad
These moments were times of WORK. We worked most all day… but because we looked at it differently, we changed our perspective and our outlook…. in return our children did the same! They enjoyed it! They enjoyed the work, the time and the memories that were made! The skills that were used!
What an amazing blessing.
Our children are not babes anymore. They are rapidly becoming young men and women. I wish I had so many moments to take back, to try again. To let go of my selfishness and do over. I can’t do that, I can’t live in past. I have to remember the good and let go of the should’ve, could’ve, would’ve… I still have time to impact my children’s hearts. To win them, to keep them! To point them to the One who holds the world in His hands.
No matter what season you are in, you may have newborns and toddlers, you may have middles, you may have many or few…. Love those children. Do not long for the days when you get to do what you want to do. Those days will be there, sooner than you realize. These few moments with our children will pass like a vapor. Make them count. Don’t fill them with stuff… fill those moments with YOU!
From my heart to yours…
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