Story Time.

The first week I showed up in the midst of a circle of preschoolers, gathered round stories in the library, my girls sat quietly. Then, Ivy tiptoes to the center-- climbs into the librarian’s lap. Foreign was a story that was not shared in close communion, the pages not turned by her own hands, the words not read softly by her ear. 

 

Precious, the greatest story that we can read to our children, that we ourselves can study and pass down. This God authored book, still alive and at work each time we separate its covers. What more can we give them, our advice pale to God breathed wisdom?

 

My greatest moments as a mom are nothing but the moments that I enrich their lives with Him. My work rests in His. Great loss the days this Book is silent to their listening ears, lost-- the moments that aren’t comforted by dialogue with Him. 

 

Why do I try and take work out of God’s capable hands? Like Esme trying to carry daddy’s backpack filled with college textbooks. It belongs on a strong back. So does motherhood. Each time I insist on relying on my own strength to carry these moments, to pour into four lives from a jar that runs empty, I lessen their God made potential. 

 

Only He can finish the work He starts. And He starts this in the most simple of ways, story time.  He asks me to read quietly, gently into their lives even before they know their letters. He wants my home to open the pages and power of His word, where He can use little words to speak to little hearts in big ways. I do not yet read sanctification, I read, “grace.” I do not read imitation, I read, “be like Jesus,” I do not yet read justification, I read, “love. “

 

More powerful than the Never Ending Story, our blood bought book still speaks. More powerful than a two edged sword, it is the one Book that holds the power to change its reader forever. It is alive and changes my life each time I open up to its power.  If God’s Word is at work in me, then even without words, it ministers to my children. 

 

Lord, help this be the one book that wears out from often reading. The book that I can quote with my eyes closed. The story I can read as fast as they turn the pages; one that holds their name inside the cover too. Most of all, the one they learn to reach for most often.

 

1 Thessalonians  2:13  For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.

 

 God showed me His love today in these moments, sweet in this mama's heart.