This is the second chapter in Loving The Little Years by Rachel Jankovic. It’s a short but wonderful and convicting book. I can’t recommend it highly enough to other women, especially mothers or women who are hoping to one day be mothers. This is a book I wish I had read years ago, before kids. It would have kept me from making some bad habits.
“I remember a time when I used to be much godlier. It was sometime in junior high and my room was clean. I was reading my Bible every day and feeling really good. It was clear to me that my sanctification was progressing very well.
The truth is my Christian life then was like a rock being refined by a slow river in a quiet place. It wasn’t that I was growing spiritually, but it was so easy!
But God took me out of that life and threw me into the rock tumbler. (Best description of motherhood that I have heard.) Here, it’s not easy to feel godly, because we spend our days crashing into each other and actually getting our problems addressed.” Pg. 13
As mothers we are in the thick of the action.
“Here there is very little time for quiet reflection. I do a lot of on-the-job failure and correction. Repenting and forgiving. Laughing. Because if there is anything that life in the rock tumbler will teach you, it’s that there is no room to take yourself seriously.
The opportunities for growth and refinement abound here- but you have to be willing.” Pg. 14
Are we willing to grow and be stretched? Are we willing to be convicted of our sins? And to repent?
“You have to open your heart to the tumble. As you deal with your children, deal with yourself always and first. This is what it looks and feels like to walk with God, as a mother.
God treats us with great kindness as we fail daily.” Pg. 14
But am I kind to my children when they fail? Am I as forgiving as God is with me?
“God takes the long view of our sin-knowing that every time we fail and repent, we grow in our walk with Him. It’s easy for us to accept this, because our sins are ours.
But our children sin against us, annoy us, and mess up our stuff. We want to hold it against them, complain about them (if only to ourselves), and feel put upon by their sin. We have a much harder time accepting that every failure from them is a wonderful opportunity for repentance and growth and not an opportunity for us to exact penance.
It is no abstract thing – the state of your heart is the state of your home. You can’t harbor resentment secretly toward your children and expect their hearts to be submissive and tender. You can’t be greedy with your time and expect them to share their toys.” Pg. 14
“And perhaps most importantly, you can’t resist your opportunities to be corrected by God and expect them to receive correction from you.
God has given us the job of teaching His law and demonstrating His grace. We are to be guides to our children as they learn to walk with God.
Sin is just a part of life. It’s the way we deal with it that changes ours.” Pg. 15
The Christian Thinker 