Children

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement
Children

Riddle of the week. What has the power to exasperate you beyond understanding, yet has the power to bring laughter and delight to your heart beyond all else? I already gave away the answer in the title above. Children. Of course. A disobedient child or a childish tantrum can arouse the most extreme internal responses such as embarrassment if in public. A child can smite us with fear if the display of actions, words or attitudes could lead to a future of serious trouble. But what expands your heart with joy more than a wet kiss on the cheek, confirming the love of an innocent little child? What brings you more joy than the amusing combination of words from a small one just learning to talk? What can take your thoughts off yourself and draw out unselfish sacrifice than a vulnerable, trusting hand reaching out to take yours? Be still my heart! The future lies behind those dancing eyes, those eager hands, that developing mind and personality.

Whether or not our lives offer us many or few opportunities to relate to small children don’t waste any moment you are privileged to interact with a little one, be it a baby straight from the arms of God into our wonderful, marvelous, dangerous, fearful world, or a toddler full of curiosity, or a teenager loaded with attitude. Take your eyes off your plans and put your full attention on the child at hand. Who knows what a few minutes of focused attention from an adult might do inside the heart or mind of a child. Who knows what you might plant in that child’s mind, what might change in that heart, what might blossom as a result.

Swallow any reluctance, ask for guidance from God, and plunge into a conversation, an activity or anything that brings the child into your world for a short time You may not see any result for the moment, but who knows over time what God can wring out of a few meaningful moments of your attention in a child’s life.