The little sinner

A little boy stands wide-eyed before his father.  His dress pants are wrinkled, and he is wearing no shirt.  Morning rebellion, pride, anger, and unrepentence sent him to an early nap.  Now, he must stand before his Father; he must give account for the actions that sent him to an early nap.

Father is stern, and he lists the complaints against the boy.

“Son, I’ve been told these things. Are they true?”
One by one, Father speaks accusations, and the little boy nods.  He bites back tears, and he nods, nods.

It’s true, it’s true, it’s all true.  

Mother watches, cringes, prays. She aches with the truth of it, she aches with the declaration of consequences, given for his good. (TV and technology banned. Mother does share the burden.)

Finally, Father takes those tiny boy hands, stained, naughty hands, and he guides them, folds them between his.  It’s time to pray.  “Son, you must pray.”

His tiny voice shakes as he prays, “Dear Jesus, please help me to be good.”

The trembling voice, the words, they pierce the heart of the boy’s mother. She wants to hold him, but instead she holds his prayer; the desires of her heart wrap around his. Dear Jesus, please help us to be good.  

Sniffles and silence.

Then, the tiny prayer is built upon, added to- and oh, the importance of this addition!-- that which cannot be known by nature or by effort; more than a desire for improvement, for virtue; Father adds grace. He adds Jesus.

The goodness that is lacking has been covered.  

Jesus; Forgiveness; God with us; Christ for us; these Words are poured out on the little boy with the red eyes and wrinkled pants.  

When the prayer is over, the boy is free.  

Reconciled to God, he turns to his mother, and her hug is a joyful extension of grace-filled Word.  

The little sinner, he is loved.

For further reading
Law and Gospel in the Home

originally published on 9/6/13

Wookit!

100 times a day, Eldon says, “mommy come see!”

Eldon notices things. He notices the hummingbirds and the butterflies and the cicada shells. He notices the cloud that looks like an alligator.  He notices the single red leaf in our yard, and he notices that there’s a little bit of orange in it too.   He’s the one who hears me when I thank God for the sunshine. How do I know? Because the next day, he points it out to me, with loud joy, and his wild hand gestures and running feet sing praise God in his little way.

He makes sure I notice, too, as if it’s a task he’s been given by God Himself.

 “Mommy, Wookit!” (Look at it!)

“Mommy, come SEE this!”

Though I don’t always appreciate it—the interruption of my “work” to “lookit”—I see that he blesses me in this way. He is part of the answer to my prayer, when I pray, God, help me to see.

Do you need help slowing down? Do you long to see?

Please read these 2 wonderful blog posts from handsfreemama.

Notice the Good

The day I stopped saying "Hurry Up."

Small (five minute friday)

Five Minute Friday
The word: SMALL

Big kids are back to school this week, and I am home with the small ones.  Tiny shoes, tiny problems.  I am small with them.

Our days are full of simple joys: collecting bugs, watching clouds, discovering their little shadows on the black top.  I am the mommy, the manager, the shadow cleaning up after them and trying to stay ahead of them.

Surrounded by small people, my world is small, too.  And like them, sometimes I get tired of being small; I look at big people doing big things and I wonder if my work and my life should be bigger, too.

But I know my eyes do not see rightly, do not really know the difference between true bigness and smallness. The little man who conquered the potty has done a big thing.  And what of his mother, who took the risks with him, who shadowed him and cheered him and protected his pride when he failed?

Tiny bodies do not contain tiny souls. 

Small bodies fed, bathed, wrestled and dressed; they are cared-for.

And souls, fed and sustained by the very Word that brought life out of nothingness blessed by the Big Love of God, -- we are cared for together, and this is not small.

For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;

 your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

Psalm 57:10

Escape of the Little People: Activity for Active Toddlers

Little people.

When my girls were younger, this assortment of characters would entertain them for hours. People had pets, played school, had families, ate meals together, and had all manner of meaningful relationships.

My boys see these wonderful toys and what do they think?

Bo-ring.

(Or, fun for throwing at each other or feeding to the dog, but that’s about it.)

It’s not about relationships for them. My boys want adventure. They want to explore, to fight bad guys, and to be heroes. 

And this is a good thing, really. I just read Wild at Heart, and I am inspired to encourage my little man-cubs in their masculinity. (I did not agree with everything in this book, but I think you should read it. If you’d like, read my review here.)

Perhaps, I thought, we can use these same toys in a new way. I schemed and plotted.

. . . .

That evening, we noticed the Queen from the Land of Little People on our porch. “Odd,” I said. “This queen never comes outside. I wonder what she is doing here?”

We stopped to visit her.

“The queen is crying!” I said, horrified. “What, you don’t hear her? I guess only I can hear her voice. Would you like me to ask her what’s wrong?”

I acted very serious as I had a one-sided conversation with the toy queen.

She and her husband had been happily overseeing their kingdom in our basement, the Land of Little People. The Little People had thrived in this land for as long as she could remember, and oh how sweet their days of schooling and farming had been. Lately, the citizens had grown more and more restless. Rumors circulated, The people had heard of a new and better land, somewhere by a great body of water. Last night, the citizens and their animals had run away in search of this new land.

“They don’t understand!” sobbed the queen. “The land they sought was indeed beautiful, but it was also the home of evil coyotes that liked to snack on Little People!”

What could we do? The queen begged our help.

My boys rose to the challenge. First, they visited their arsenal, and carefully chose a weapon for the occasion. A sword for one, a light saber for another, a crossbow for a third. One boy saw nothing that appealed to him, but he bravely stuck out his chest and declared, “If I see a coyote, I will just use my FISTS.”

We traveled to the faraway land (the pond across the road.)

The littlest man-cub, mostly just swung his sword at leaves. 

I'm sure his masculine display of strength scared away some of those coyotes.

The princess, hiding from danger in her tree.

We saved her before she fell in the water.

This man-cub heard the queen's grateful cheers.

The king had climbed a tree to get a better view of the scattered citizens. 

He was relieved when we told him we'd gathered most of them.

The boys LOVED this activity. We have done it four more times since this day.  

If you have little man-cubs with nothing to do, why not give this a try?

Have you been on any adventures with your little people lately? I'd love to hear from you!

My Sanity-Keeping Secrets: Toddlers

I put on my tennis shoes first thing in the morning, and I feel like I run ALL DAY LONG. I run and I clean and I run and I talk and I break up fight and I answer questions and I run and I TALK and they talk at me, and at the end of the day I am WORN OUT.

How can a person work so hard all day long and yet nothing seems to ever get DONE?

The answer is not really all that complicated: