Loving {my} little years on mother's day

I am having major writer's block. I have typed three different introductions for this post and deleted all of them. It might have something to do with the fact that I'm DOG GONE tired from taking care of poor Mason who is at his teething worst. He cried off and on all through the night last night. And like most moms, my ears are the size of elephants, so any little noise keeps me wide awake.  I'm also blaming this lack of writing motivation on this gorgeous weather. I can't think clearly when all I want to do is get outside and sit in Michigan's warm sun today!

So, I'll {try to} keep it short.

I am a mother. A mother who loves what I do, even though I don't fully understand it at times. A mother who desires to model Christ to my children, even though I don't always know what that looks like. A mother who struggles with how to balance everything. A mother who trips and stumbles over my own words and actions. A mother who wants the best for my kids but sometimes wakes up hoping my kids will just leave me alone all day. Yes, this whole being a "Mom" thing is wonderful and overwhelming and amazing and trying and life-changing and just plain hard sometimes.


I'll tell you one thing....it sure makes me love my OWN mother even more--shes a Mom to five of us goobers. Love ya Mom!

Ryan. Mom. Gretchen. Lauren. Me. Katelyn

Okay. On to the book that I mentioned last week...

Without dissecting each chapter {I will pray you may all find time to read it...it's THAT good}, I will leave you with a section from Chapter 6 titled, "Heavy Branches". The first 5 chapters were a breeze. I nodded through every single one thinking, "yes, yes, YES!". But, this one was harder for me to swallow. I did not like it the first time I read it.

"Just what does being fruitful look like? 

...probably one of the first things you think of is Psalm 128: 'Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table'.

But the funny thing is that in this verse, the fruitful vine is not bearing children, she is bearing fruit. The children were all off her vine long ago and are responsible for their own fruit-bearing. She is just a heavy laden vine...the mere fact of having children does not mean you are a fruitful person. That would be like the apple trees calling it off after their first year of bearing fruit. 

But true fruitfulness requires constant, year-round attention. It requires taking risks. It might mean making a truckload of apples to throw in a ditch out in the country somewhere. It is funny to think about, but God does not tell us to necessarily be strategic with our fruit. We do not need to know what will happen to the fruit. Will someone check on it every day? Harvest the best to make a pie? Or will there be a junior high kid sweating around among yellow jackets trying to pick it all up--wishing that we were not quite so bountiful? What happens to all our fruit is not our problem. That doesn't mean that we are not to care about the fruit. While it is on our branches, it is our life work. It is an offering to God, and we ought to care intensely about the quality of our fruit. But the branches are our responsibility; the ground is not. 

But what does this apply to in real life? Well, think about yourself and about the things you do. Look at it like fruit. Are you holding yourself back on things, afraid that the end result will not be worthy of your labor? Are you afraid to fail? Is there some domestic activity that you would love to know how to do, but don't want to try in case it doesn't turn out? Are you afraid to try new recipes? Are you afraid to put energy or money into something that might turn into nothing? Do you think fondly of some day when you might bear fruit, but resist getting right down to business this year? Do you evaluate the necessity of everything, passing it by if it doesn't add up to be practical? Are you limiting the branches upon which you are willing to bear fruit?" 

--Rachel Jankovic 

Loving the Little Years 

[Chap. 6, pg 32-33]

 

Whew! That's a lot to think about, right? I could spend the next year just trying to answer all those questions in the last paragraph. Geesh! But, OH so good for me to read, digest, re-read, and hopefully put into practice.

Hope you are having a lovely Mother's Day.

I had a big chef and little chef who treated me like a queen today!