Intentional Motherhood: Walking in the Light

I did a foolish thing in the wee hours of the morning.

I should have kept the light on, but instead I glanced over the floor to make sure I could find my way to the next light switch to turn on, and I flicked it off.

Groping in complete darkness I tried to find my way. My eyes did not adjust very quickly.

Step by step I made progress, thinking for sure I was headed in the right direction. But, I had misperceived the distance between the hallway back to my bedroom and the stairway leading to the basement.

As I reached out to where I thought the switch should be, I realized I was at the top of the stairway and the motion of my arm swinging to find the switch propelled me on a ride on my bottom end. There was no way I could prevent the fall at this point. I hit the wood floor hard and bounced most of the way down until my left arm was able to grab hold of the banister. I heard my older daughter screaming from her bedroom. She woke my son and they both came running.

My right arm clutched my three year old.

She had woken up from a bad dream and I stumbled out of bed in deep sleep grogginess and found her with tears streaming down her face. As I consoled her, she clung to my body like a koala.

I assured her that she could come with me and find her daddy and stay with us until she felt better.


What made me think I could get her to her Daddy, carrying her through the black darkness?


I moved forward without thinking at all of the danger of the stairs. I never believed the darkness would be so blinding that I could get so far off course that the stairway would even be a danger.

As we landed, I called out for help. The bad dream didn't seem so bad anymore, apparently, for my three year old scampered out of my arms and ran back to her own bed!

Help came running and he was completely confused by the time he found me sprawled across the stairs unable to move right away. My husband admitted later he couldn't figure out what I was doing in the stairway at 3 in the morning.

I was in pain, exposed, and feeling horrible about falling with my child. Like the worst-mother-of-the-year kind of horrible.

After I was picked up, I made my way back to my little girl and made sure she was ok. Thankfully, not a mark on her! She looked into my face and asked me if I just had a bad dream!!

::

As I reflected on what a foolish thing I had done, and was thanking God that we were spared from much worse, the lesson in it all was so clear in my mind and heart!!

We can not lead our children to the Light

if we are not walking in the Light.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,

and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

As mothers, we have a great influence over precious lives entrusted to us!

As ones who have been redeemed, we have an amazing opportunity to make disciples right in our very homes!

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

We have been appointed.

"It is the parent, who has already experienced the salvation of God, who is appointed to lead the child to know God. The knowledge of God is not simply a matter of the understanding. It is to love Him, to live in Him, to experience the power of His presence and His blessing. The [one] who would teach others to know God must be able to speak from personal experience of Him. [S]he must prove by the warmth of love and devotion that [s]he loves this God, and receives [her] life from Him."

We qualify from personal experience.

"Only personal experience of the power of the blood can qualify a parent to speak to [her]children of God. It is the parent who has experienced redemption who can tell [her]child about the God of redemption . . . the parents who lives in the experience of Christ's redemption can speak of the mercy of the God of salvation."

We have a powerful influence because of our natural relationship.

"[The parent's] love seeks, even in nature, the happiness of the child, and can often make great sacrifices to attain it. It is this love that God uses . . . It is this love which purifies the parent to be the minister of God's grace.
"With a parent's love there is a parent's influence . . . The character of childhood is formed and molded by impressions. Constant companionship with the parent can make these impressions deep and permanent . . .
"A parent who is made partaker of God's love and grace himself, accepted and blessed with the promise of . . . the Spirit . . . [is used by God in] the influences of family life to do the great work of gaining the child for God. This surely is one of the most wonderful examples of God's grace upon earth."

As we walk in the Light, the One who has redeemed us and given us a great salvation, and loved us even while we were still sinners, we have this amazing grace to teach our children and disciple them to be followers of the One True God.

It is God's work ultimately in the life of each individual child, but we have been instructed to share the gospel with our children; to tell "them of what God has done, and [seek] to lead them to this personal knowledge and acceptance of this God as their God."

We need to be living a life that directs our children's hearts to the Light, not one that will cause them to stumble and fall in the darkness.



A Mother's Prayer

"Lord God, open the eyes of the parents of Your Church to their calling, that they may honor You as the God of their families. Lord, bless my own home, and give me grace as one of Your redeemed ones, to train my children for their God. May the joy of a personal experience of redemption and the love of the blessed Redeemer, warm my heart, inspire my words, and light up my life to testify of You and train them for You alone. Amen"

*****

{all quotations taken directly from 'Raising Your Child for Christ' by Andrew Murray, unless otherwise noted}


There's a little book, 'Raising Your Children for Christ' by Andrew Murray, on my shelf that I keep bringing down and leafing through and, Lord willing, on Wednesdays I hope to share snippets of my gleanings from it.

I don't claim to know all the answers. I need to dig deeper so that I can be even more equipped to be the mother that God intended. 

Join me on this journey? It is not a list of rules and how-to's but rather a chance to look into your own life and heart and be challenged to live a life wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord. 

For the first post in this series on Intentional Motherhood you can find it here.

For all posts in this series you can read them here.