The Ordinary Stuff

I sit cross legged in the middle of my living room floor with my 4 year old and we are surrounded by a little village of toys. Her precious little "baby voice" is a love song to my ears. I know it will not last much longer as time passes and things change without our recognizing it until it has already happened. I want to hold on to these times and enjoy being "in the moment". My precious little accident prone child who is constantly running into walls, tripping over herself or falling off furniture and jumping up quickly to say, "I'm alright!" She walks over in front of me and dumps out a pile of blocks ready to build with them. She sets up dominoes and squeals with delight to knock them down in a row. She plays pretend and makes up songs in her own little made up language with her tiny dolls and animals. She talks nonstop. Her smiles and exuberant expressions crack me up all day long. I think about how little time I have left before she is off to school and growing even more independent. My heart aches at the thought of my baby not being my baby any longer. So I sit with her and listen. It doesn't usually make a lot of sense, the stories she tells and songs she sings, but they are precious treasures to my heart and they come straight from the ordinary stuff of our days. The perfect ordinary stuff.

I make the short afternoon drive to get my 8 year old in the pick up line at school and she jumps in the back seat with a big smile on her face and eyes alight. This is our time together, just her and I. I ask her how her day was and what she learned about in class. She rattles off excited tales of trading snacks at lunch time, making up a new "bug rescuing club" during recess, and tells about how she loves working with fractions in math. She tells me she got picked to be the helper for a new girl in her class. She says she was so happy to make a new friend today. She has a beautiful mind. Her heart is full and open and always reaching out to others. She is getting so close to a pre-teen age now and I cry out to the Lord to preserve and protect her purity and innocence. I want to keep her in a bubble but I know that is not the way. So I pray even harder that the word of the Lord is etched upon her sweet heart and that wisdom guides her choices, that she feels safe in coming to me and her dad to talk about things, that we would listen and guide her in love through the years ahead. Today, I want to let her ride her bike, build forts in the living room with her sister, climb trees, and snuggle up next to me when we read together. Today I want to relish in the perfection of the ordinary stuff. I want to share evening prayers with her and her sister and extra hugs and night time kisses. I want to brush her hair and still be able to compliment her by saying that her outfit looks "cute". 

I love how our girls think it is so special to get to sleep on a palette of blankets on the floor in their bedroom on a school night.

I love how they dress up and have tea parties, or pirate ship adventures, or go on a mission as super sleuth spies trying to find clues and unravel a mystery.

I love how they sit enraptured as they listen to me read them a chapter book in the evenings.

It is the ordinary stuff that is so truly extra ordinary. 

Our children are the greatest extraordinary gift that God has entrusted to us. We have been given the blessing and responsibility of loving them, nourishing them, protecting them, teaching them, and lovingly leading them in the path of righteousness. I believe that no matter what else we do in our lives one of our highest callings and greatest joys is to share with our children the immeasurable peace and eternal hope that comes from having a relationship with Jesus Christ and submitting to him as Lord of our lives. I could wish nothing better for my girls than for them to follow Christ wholeheartedly in all they do and say.