So I know that today was supposed to be the follow up to scary suspense of yesterday, but I find myself redirected for the moment.  Something else has to come before that message.  It is this key, important, highly profound secret to childrearing…captured in three words…

YOU DELIGHT ME.

You delight me!  This is the foundation for our relationship to our kids!  I know, I know, it sounds simple.  But let’s break it down a little.

Firstly, have you thought today (I’m just gonna speak mom to mom here) about how the Lord feels about the job you’re doing?  Have you considered His high praise for you today?  Consider these verses in your immediate context, Momma:

¹³ Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.  Jn 15:13

¹¹The greatest among you will be your servant. Mat 23:11

¹⁷ The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” Jn. 21:17

He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young.  Is. 40:11

I could go on and on, but those are the first verses that spring to mind.  In other words, I can’t think of a job on the planet that more acutely represents the heart condition in which our Lord delights in than mothering.  Fathering, too, but I’ve found fathering is a little more optional.  Fathers get to choose whether they will take up this most holy occupation of laying down one’s life to nourish little sheep, but mothers get a crash course whether or not they want to.  You gotta get up in the middle of the night and you gotta feed that baby and you gotta change those diapers, and no infant ever lived through their first six weeks without some woman, in some fashion, laying down her life.  FAST-TRACK TO HOLINESS, right there in the cradle.  IF, she will do two things:

1) BELIEVE that the Lord delights in her utterly unrecognized, utterly unseen service/death to self.

2) Turn and delight in the little one she’s been given, as the Lord delights in her.

The preschool years are the wet cement years.  I’ll talk more about this later, but these years are the OPPORTUNITY to pour the cement into God’s mold.  Later, you’ve got to break setting rock to mold into God’s design, if they weren’t properly set to begin with.  These years are SHORT AND GOLDEN!!!  They are the time to settle in your child’s heart, for all eternity, this truth:  YOU DELIGHT ME.

It’s simple, but it means everything.  Let’s get practical.

1.  Physical-C:  (this is what OJ and I called it when we were dating).  Parenting is a high contact sport.  The more touching, the better, especially in these tender early years.  When we accustom our hands to reach out for touches, tickles, hugs, and kisses at every available opportunity, we settle it in our kids’ heart.  We tell them they delight us.

2.  I have time for you: This is so important.  Frantic, schedule-crazy momma with her list and agenda does not know it, but she can so easily trade in the greater for the lesser.  These years are SHORT!!!  The Lord does not set up days that do not have time in them for what He’s given us to do!  What He has authorized, He will provide for.  If there’s not enough time for the little one’s hearts to be at peace, then Mom and Dad need to hit their knees and ask what needs to go.  If it’s not eternal, it probably needs to go!  Aren’t you glad that we have been set free from the world’s standards of what should fill our lives?  Because Jesus did this:

“…having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”  Col. 2:14

What handwriting of requirements are you allowing to steal from your children as your priority, Momma?  Is it Martha Stewart’s?  Your in-law’s?  Is it academic?  Whatever it is, chuck it!  This is supposed to be FUN!!!!  Our kiddos LOVE to LOVE us, and they are desperate to be delighted in.  This is supposed to be super fun!  Get up and do a little dance…this may be the only time in your life you have an audience that is actually impressed!  Maybe it’s financial burdens, and you have to work.  Maybe you live in the dread of losing your identity or significance in becoming “just a housewife.”  Do I have a story for you!  That’ll have to wait for another day.  Suffice it to say:  Jesus has the answer, and He has time for YOU!

3) Use your mouth like the power tool that it is: These are some of my favorite phrases.  “You are the one that Momma loves.”  (Kiss, kiss, kiss).  “You are my favorite girl.”  (Hug, hug)  “I like you so much.”  (tickle)  “You make Momma SO HAPPY!!!”  (tackle!)  Your mouth will determine who this little one becomes.  Think about it!  What do you remember your parents saying to you frequently?  Have you noticed that your identity battles directly corellate with what was or was not said to you?

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.  Ps 18:21  Speak LIFE into your children daily!

Okay, I could go on forever, but, Momma, my heart is just bursting to tell you to RISE up!!!  The enemy tells you all day that you are exhausted, futile, failing, and wasting yourself.  But the truth is, you have never touched on a more powerful role than this one!!!  This is ETERNAL! You are the one to set the cement and aim the arrow!  And it all happens in the context of joy and delight…God delights in you and you delight in your little one.  I will talk more about discipline and the war with the enemy later, but how can we discipline if we don’t keep our little one’s love cups full?  And how can we war unless we are familiar with God’s weapons (faith, hope, and love)?

To sum it all up, here’s my Mommy mantra:

1. I like you.

2. I love you.

3. I’m not afraid of you.

4. I’m in charge.

Today, I talked about number one.  Tomorrow…why it’s such a battle!

Boy, there’s just not a lot of time in this daily thing to polish it up…hope you don’t mind the unfashionable form with lots of caps and italics!