{"id":1037,"date":"2014-10-07T12:14:17","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T16:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=1037"},"modified":"2014-10-09T18:24:08","modified_gmt":"2014-10-09T22:24:08","slug":"the-season-of-small-ones-mothering-god-gandalf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=1037","title":{"rendered":"The Season of Small Ones – Mothering, God, & Gandalf"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"022\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord<\/span> our God, the Lord<\/span> is<\/i> one! You shall love the Lord<\/span> your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. <\/span>And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.\u00a0<\/span> You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” – Deuteronomy 6:4-9<\/span><\/p>\n

All the years of mothering have stretching bits, but the season of small ones was my most challenging. I was struck\u00a0all over again just this weekend at the exquisite work of parenting. At our house church gathering, there were all these little guys weaving in and out around the tree-like adults in their way. Little ones belonging to three moms, pregnant with their next precious babies. A houseful of life and love and\u00a0breath-taking responsibility.<\/p>\n

I woke up the next morning thinking about those moms and others like them – holding the future in their arms.\u00a0 What a gift children are – a heritage of the Lord (Psalm 127:3<\/a>) – and what an\u00a0important\u00a0charge we’ve been given in training them up (Proverbs 22:6<\/a>).\u00a0 As moms, every day is on-the-job training\u00a0for us, too, as we sort out how to\u00a0guide \u00a0our children\u00a0in setting their feet on course with God. We disciples making wee disciples.<\/p>\n

\"scan0007\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When we brought our first-born home from the hospital, we basked in the miracle of her. Then a few days into mothering , I sat with her in my lap, crying my eyes out. Some of it, most probably, related to post-partum hormones, but mostly I was undone by the\u00a0weight of\u00a0responsibility of caring for her…and trying to do it “right”. My husband was sitting across the room, taking in all this mystery of a beautiful baby girl and a wife weeping. I asked him, “What if something happens to her?!” He leaned in, with\u00a0newborn tenderness, and reasoned with me, “If we only had her for a week, it’s a week of more joy than we’ve ever known before. We have to trust her with God.” From that moment on, we have been daily doing that transaction with\u00a0the Lord\u00a0– praying for our children and laying them back in His arms. They are, after all, His.<\/p>\n

God calls us to remember for a reason. In the remembering, He gives us the clarity to see that He is always with us and especially in this season of small ones. I want to write more on this, but for now, young moms, take courage. In all the craziness of your day, with all that pulls at your time and attention, God sees you. He stands in the battle for you. Be strong in the Lord. We fight for our children in an alien culture that we call home, and we are not alone. God is with us today, and He will be with them in their future. Remember that, and teach them that.<\/p>\n

I picture us moms, in a small way, like Gandalf in the LOTR Fellowship of the Ring scene. He stands valiantly between his small band of\u00a0“children” and the terrible Balrog. His words resonate with my heart to protect and prepare my children – not just for their sake but for their future – for the Kingdom purposes God has for them. At the end of that scene, when it appeared Gandalf lost his life in that battle, his charges, sad but safe, turned and\u00a0pushed\u00a0on with their mission.\u00a0 They had learned well from their teacher. Moms, “you are braver than you think<\/strong>…for the Lord your God<\/strong><\/em> is with you<\/a> wherever you [and your children] go.”<\/p>\n

Lisa-Jo Baker’s Book Surprised by Motherhood<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Youtube video of LOTR Fellowship of the Ring – Gandalf Faces the Balrog<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.\u00a0\u00a0You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of … Continue reading The Season of Small Ones – Mothering, God, & Gandalf<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34,183,147,50,109,33,317,293,263,31,519,32],"tags":[97,465,682,640,219,683,592,21,594,685,684],"class_list":["post-1037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-culture-religion","category-family-2","category-god","category-home-2","category-inspired","category-lessons-learned","category-life-skills","category-lives-full-of-god","category-parenting","category-teaching","category-walk-with-god","tag-children","tag-courage","tag-encourage-one-another","tag-heritage","tag-inheritance","tag-keepers-of-the-home","tag-lisa-jo-baker","tag-mothering","tag-parenting-2","tag-surprised-by-motherhood","tag-wise-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pauPAB-gJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1037"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1075,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions\/1075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}