The Mission.... God's Creation

I am currently re-reading "Mission of Motherhood" by Sally Clarkson. It's really been such a challenging, yet inspiring book to read. It's really forced me to think about my role as a mother, and what my priorities are as far as parenting goes. What should my main focus be? How do I incorporate that in my every day living?

Well, my main desire for E is that she will come to love Jesus. I want her to enjoy serving, being God's creation, loving others, being in God's presence, love creativity, be inquisitive. Let's face it, though... This means I need to model all of this for her. Not such an easy task.

The current chapter I am reading is about the "Creative Mother". Here is a rather long excerpt for the book that has inspires me every time I read it:

"Helping my children to enjoy and appreciate God's handiwork in its many varieties requires a choice. It means that I must take time to expose my children to the beauty and grandeur of nature, to stop to enjoy and admire it with them, and to choose to allow the intangible reality of God's design to fill their souls - time when the televisions and computers are turned off, no phone calls are made and activities are balanced so that quiet pondering and thoughtful enjoyment are a regular part of our days.

In our culture we have too often secluded ourselves and our children from the beauty and mysteries of God's natural creation. In the interest of convenience and progress, we have substituted man-made materials for the real thing. And while I believe that human creations can indeed be indirect expressions of God's creativity, I also believe that the farther we move from nature the more out of touch we can get with God' s power and reality.

We may substitute silk flowers for fresh flowers cut from a garden or wildflowers plucked from a hillside. But while the silk flowers never wilt, they lack the incredible fragrance of roses or honeysuckle or lavender or the freshness of buttercups or Queen Anne's lace. And while the real flowers may wither, they also teach us lessons about the fragility and temporary state of this life that perfect artificial ones never could.

Even the food we eat tends to be prepackaged and institutional. The natural tastes of spices and herbs in homemade soups, the chewiness of whole-grain bread, pasta, or brownies with pecans; the natural sweetness of real fruit and the juicy crunch of fresh vegetables are replaced with vitamin tables and commercial substitutes.

So many of us in our plastic, industrial world spend the bulk of our lives apart from any true natural beauty. We travel inside protected cars and feel the wind, rain, and snow on our faces, only as we move from one enclosure to another. So many children in our industrial society grow up surrounded by glass and plastic, steel and asphalt. They spend most of their time with machines - televisions and stereos, game consoles and computers, and cars. They are rarely exposed to the natural elements that were meant to daily confront our soul with the greatness of God.

No wonder current generations seem to give in so easily to doubt and skepticism! They have had little opportunity to wonder at the greatness of God in the vast ocean or in the middle of a snowy blizzard or felt tiny when standing under the canopy of stars."

Wow. Besides making my heart scream "take care of the earth!", it also causes me to remember all of the times I have felt closest to God. Going for walks during the autumn and seeing the deep, vibrant colors. Being at the beach and seeing the waves, or finding unique shells and stones. Feeling enveloped with all of the snow on trees - having that mystical feeling.

My heart longs so much for E to experience God in this way - feel with her soul that He's there amongst His creation. There is so much beauty for her to know. But as Clarkson states, it's a conscious effort for me, as her mom, to make sure she has the opportunity to experience God with her senses.

It requires me making the time to spend the 20 minutes getting her bundled up, and taking her outside to explore, experience, feel and know on her own. It takes the time to make our food from scratch, when we could buy it already made, and allowing E to be involved (this is tricky now as she is still so young).

This is when I feel the rawness of God - the essence of who He is. Oh, for E to know this as well...

I hear E stirring from her nap.... and it's snowing outside.... time to find beauty in the winter...