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Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Some thoughts on my babes


My sister passed along some of the best child-rearing advice I've ever heard a few months before I had Elias. It ALWAYS comes back to me, probably three or four times a day. She said, when our children are children - we want them to be everything we don't want them to be as adults. For our children in the adult lives, we wish for them to be rambunctious, excitable, quick to ask questions, be exploratory, strong-willed & full of personality. However, in their early years - those are the things we stifle, or society tries to stifle, for our "convenience".

I already have to catch myself from getting annoyed with Elias or even mildly disciplining him when he shows the characteristics that I pray for him. From the day he was born, Elias was already extremely physically advanced. I know it sounds like I'm bragging, but really - he just was. Since he came our, he loves to stand... even when he was days old, when he fussed - we knew he just wanted to be standing. When he was four weeks old and we were visiting my parents in Charleston, he decided he didn't want to be held while breastfeeding, so he sat on his knees and held his lunch in his hands. Yesterday, all in one day, he began full-on crawling and pulling himself to the standing position. All he had been doing was some mild scooting and rocking on his hands and knees. All of a sudden, I turned around, and he had crawled clear across the townhouse. YIKES.

The bad parent part of me wants to be terrified and overwhelmed, but I'm trying to let the good parent fight through and see that I am blessed with a son who is dying to see the world - to experience it for himself and form his own opinions.

So here's the sad part, we do this with big humans too. I try to daily pray that my husband would grow in faith, in his love for Jesus, in his radical obedience, and in his leadership. This past weekend, he asked me to trust him in a radically obedient, faithful, and extremely frightening leap of trust in Jesus - financially. I cannot describe to you the ways I tried to fight him. I actually feel awful but I had such a hard time believing God would show up, I was sure Nick was being irresponsible. Finally - I gave in grudgingly.

Not only did Nick take care of us, I think God GREATLY blessed him for his faith. Last night, a friend who didn't know our financial situation and didn't know about Nick's act of obedience HID $50 in our house and called us after he left to make us aware of his little trick.

From now on, I'm going to try and not only pray for my husband and son - but encourage them to be as wild and crazy as the Lord dares them to be. I love that God gave me (scared, unadventurous, nervous, and pragmatic) two real men (daring, exciting, passionate, adventurous, and true).

Love love.

2 comments:

Candice of 'The Beautiful Mess' said...

what a revelation!

...and yay for the beautiful surprise!!

JandK Walters said...

this my sweet friend is what real rubies are made of. You are the most amazing wife, mamma and daughter of the King I ever did know. I wanna be just like you! LoveX3