“Diapers, Pacifiers, and Other Holy Things”
Can’t take credit for the title of this one. It’s the title of a great devotional book for moms that a friend of mine loaned me a while back. Now I’ve read lots of “mom-devotional” books and none have really given me much to chew on. But this one is different. The author, Lorraine Pintus, takes her day-to-day life and very eloquently shares how God has used even the silliest moments to teach her something big. Like I said, been done before. But not this well. There are SO many great lessons in this book, but one that really stuck out to me recently is this:
“As a parent, you often choose not to explain yourself to your children because their young minds cannot comprehend your reasoning. When this happens, how do you want your children to respond? How does God want us to respond when we are unable to understand His ways?”
Wow. I mean, WOW. Am I the only one who is completely utterly blown away by this? Jace and I have this talk almost every day. Jace LOVES asking 100 TRILLION questions a day right now and I spend most of my day answering them. I try not to be the parent who just says “because” to get out of actually answering a curious little boy’s questions. But like Lorraine said, there are times when there is a question where the answer is just simply, “Because Mommy said so” or “Because that is the rule”. And the response that we expect from our children is a heartfelt “Yes Ma’am/Sir”. We talk tirelessly about obeying simply because we are told to. We are told to obey our God and we are told to obey our parents.
So her point shouldn’t really come as some big surprise! But boy oh boy did it really just smack me upside the head! “How does God want us to respond when we are unable to understand His ways?” When was the last time any of us gave God a hearty, “Yes Sir!” and moved on without questioning His plans. As if we might actually know more than Him and be able to convince Him so. Yeah, right.
I’m so thankful for this book and even more so for the day-to-day moments that God uses to teach us something profound.
Wow. That revelation really is worthy of a forehead smack. Thanks for the food for thought! I might have to wait until the morning caffeine wears off before tackling this one or I may just freak out.
“I am thankful…for the day-to-day moments that God uses to teach us something profound”
Amen. Help me remember Lord.
-H
wowsa. that is so true! thanks for the insight, the food for thought. have a blessed day!
That sounds like a lovely devotional. What a great insight.
I think I have a lot to learn about gracious acceptance. Thanks for the reminder.