“Casting all your anxieties upon Him, for He cares for you.” I Peter 5:7
The God of the Universe is probably bombarded with the petty complaints and worries of His people all the time. Things that, in His holy and eternal perspective, He knows are not significant in the long run.
I think about all of my own drama and how I am so often a complete mess in it, begging for God to help me with things like…getting all of the birthday party decorations done in time, not being late to church for the 12th time in a row, making a dinner that all of our guests will like.
But He does not minimize our problems…in fact, He wants to hear all about them. He would rather us take our fears and anxieties to Him than to anyone or anything else in the world. Because He cares for us.
One of the many, many ways that God shows His affection for us is by welcoming our worries and sharing our burdens. What a picture of the love that our Father has for His children!
That picture, of a child weeping before her loving Father and telling Him all that is on her heart, is a glimpse into our own role of mother.
Just as our Heavenly Father knows that, in light of eternity, most of our anxieties are not worth the trouble of fretting over, so we often know that our children’s “problems” are really not game-changing issues.
But to them it is.
The frustration and anxiety is very real to my son when his block castle that he spent 30 minutes building gets knocked over. Or when he can’t find what he’s looking for. Or when, try as he might, he just can’t hold the pencil properly.
Our children are casting their anxieties on us just as we cast ours on our Heavenly Father…do we respond the way He does?
1. “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears toward their cry.”
– Psalm 34:15
He Listens!
When my son comes running in from the backyard, frantic because his roly poly crawled away, I often “listen” to his drama with my back to him as I continue to wash dishes. And when he’s done, I tell him that there’s tons of roly polies all in the grass and he can just find a new one.
I did all that while never breaking my thought process on the menu plan for the week.
Contrast that to the way Psalm 34:15 describes the way the Lord listens – with His eyes and His ears. He looks our way! His gaze is upon us and we have His full attention. How loving, how valuing, to sacrifice your time and mental energy and truly listen to someone.
I want to value my child the way the Lord values me. He does not belittle me or provoke me to frustration. As He weeps and rejoices with me in my own “drama”, so should I be moved to compassion as I listen to my son fret over his lost roly poly.
2. “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will act.” – Psalm 37:5
He Acts!
My dishes would have survived without me for 5 minutes if I had rushed outside with my son to help him find his lost roly poly. If I had gone outside with him – which I desperately wish I had done! – he would have experienced the joy of knowing that his problems are very dear to me, that I am driven to action by his broken-heartedness.
Our Heavenly Father is truly our guide in how we ought to mother our children. He never fails to act on our behalf when it is for our best.
As He steps in and helps shoulder our impossible burdens, so should we step in and ease the burdens and frustrations of our own precious children. When their blocks collapse, they need us to – literally – help pick up the pieces. When they want to be shown how to draw a train, it is so important that we get on the floor with them, put their hand in ours, and draw a train together.
In the same way that it deepens my understanding of God’s love for me when He rescues me from something that I can’t handle, what value it shows our little ones when we step into their world and “save the day!!
In the vastness of history and in the smallness of my own life, God has shown Himself as a loving Father who faithfully acts on His children’s behalf.
…He heard the wandering Israelites’ cry and rained down bread and meat for them.
…He has sent people my way to share words of His that I needed to hear.
…He saw our desperate and afflicted state and sent His Son into the middle of our chaos – truly saving the day for all eternity.
Our God hears our cries, is moved to compassion, and acts.
Would my children and your children say that we make light of their “problems”, or do we jump into the mess with them and help carry their burden? Am I listening to my child in a way that reflects God’s compassion toward me?
Through the love of their mommies, our sons and daughters experience their very first taste of God and his lovingkindness. God doesn’t plop a newborn baby in front of a theology book, he places them into the arms of an affectionate, loving mother.
Oh, that we would paint a complete picture of the Lord for our children!
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This post is the second in a series, “As HE Fathers Us, So Should We Mother Them.” Part One looked at the generous outpouring of God’s affection toward His children and the example that sets for us mommies to generously dote on our own sons and daughters.
I am looking forward to continuing this study on God’s parental love for us. 🙂
PS I would love to hear some of your own observations of the examples that God sets for us mommies.
