THE EYES OF A CHILD

My bible reading today ended with Genesis 29:29.

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever; that we may follow all the words of this law.

Saturday I attended a wonderful conference of our local chapter of the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators. In attendance were many wonderful authors and illustrators; agents and editors. And many writers, struggling to become published.

All of us there were passionate about creating books that will speak to the hearts of children.

That is an awesome responsibility—to create something to help children see the world in a new light; that will open their eyes to new possibilities; that will help shape their hearts and minds.

God has given us an awesome responsibility to train our children in the way they should go so that when they are grown they will not turn from it.

The challenge for Christian writers is to teach children through our words in a way that will not sound stern or preachy.

The challenge is also to create books that editors will be able to sell to a public that resists Christianity.

The challenge is to speak the truth in love.

The conference was filled with jewels of encouragement and gems of knowledge intended to spur us toward assembling sparkling words to create brilliant books. I returned home, inspired to persevere in using God’s gift to help children see Him in the world around us…

…even children who long ago stopped counting the candles on the cake.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, we are your children and we want to see the beauty and majesty of your world through open eyes of wonder. Help us see and share your world with our children and each other. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? What special responsibility do you have to share with the children in your life?

PREPARING TO BE INSPIRED

Tomorrow I’ll be hanging out with other children’s writers and illustrators at a full day SCBWI conference (Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators). There will be editors, agents, writers, illustrators and a whole lot of talented wanna-be’s.

We’re all wanna-be’s—whether we’re published or not.

We wanna be more published.

Wanna have a larger body of work.

Wanna have more inspiration for more forward progress in our craft.

So today I’m preparing to be inspired. Researching the background of the speakers. Setting out my most comfortable slacks and slip on shoes; locating my therapeutic seat cushion; checking that my ink pens are filled to the brim and adding a second pad of paper for the reams of notes I’ll be taking.

Because you can never know it all; can never know enough; can never have too much inspiration.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us gifts and a desire to use them for your purpose. Thank you for placing people and occasions in our path to inspire us to use those gifts for your glory. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? What inspires you in your craft?

GROWING FAMILIES

This post is part of the Christian Writers blog chain. Our theme for this month is “Gifts from the Heart.” Please see the list to the right and visit my friends’ blogs to see what they have to say about this topic. 

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Twenty-two Christmases ago, our son was three years old; our daughter was 6 months. I remember sitting under the tree, watching husband and son opening gifts; watching baby girl google at the soft blanket in her chubby hands. I smiled and thought, “Now, our family is complete.”

Fast forward 22 years and I smile once more, realizing how wrong I had been. This year will be the last year we are a family of four. Nicole’s fiancé, Kyle joins our family at the end of the month. Next Christmas our family will be a family of five. And one day—God willing—there will be a wife for our son. And grandchildren, too. 

That reminds me of Jesus.  

No doubt, when baby Jesus was born, Father God smiled down on the earth. But surely He didn’t say, “Now, my family is complete.”  

Father God knew that because of Jesus, there would be millions of souls who would be adopted into His family. In fact, God’s family will only be complete at one point in the future; on a date no one but He knows; growing larger each moment, day, month, year, millennium.  

Meanwhile, we celebrate being adopted into God’s family with our earthly families and friends—made possible by the birth of baby Jesus.  

I like to think of Jesus googling at the soft blanket in his chubby hands that Christmas morn, and thinking, “Now my family begins.” 

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for adopting me into your family and for sending Jesus to make it possible. Thank you for the gift of your heart—Jesus. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Is your family still growing? Have you added anyone new this year?

HOT AUGUST NIGHTS

This post is part of the CW blog chain. Our theme this month is “august.” Not August, the month; but “august” as in majestic, powerful, imposing, dignified, distinguished, solemn, stately. But here I’d like to combine the two meanings as I celebrate the life of my son.

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Hot August Nights.

That phrase has a special meaning when you’re nine months pregnant and don’t have air conditioning. That was me 25 years ago, awaiting the birth of my firstborn—our awesome son, Doug.

Yep, I was miserable before his birth. But remember John 16:21?

“A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.”

I’m not sure being hot is the sort of pain John was talking about. But back to the topic of august, majestic, dignified, solemn…

Let’s face it. There’s nothing dignified or solemn about giving birth. But the new life a child brings with him into the world is nothing less than a real and powerful example of God’s majesty. A baby is new life; a perfect child; a precious gift to the world. 

A Perfect Child

Like every new parent, the first thing I did when Doug was born was count his fingers and toes and thank God for giving Doug ten of each. In every way, my tiny baby was physically perfect. He was a true miracle; made no less miraculous by the fact that perfect babies have been born every moment of every day of every century since the beginning of time.

 

No doubt, Jesus’ earthly mother did the same as I did and as every other mother does. She counted Jesus’ fingers and toes and thanked God for the perfection she held in her arms.

A Precious Gift to Us 

After the counting, I thanked God for the gift that baby Dougie was to hubby and I.

At the same moment, I was overcome with the responsibility—the deep understanding that God had entrusted this child to our care. As stewards of his life, we had better do a good job of it. Our son was a precious gift to us—a gift that needed care to ensure he was healthy and loved.

How much more must Mary have sensed her responsibility to care for the God of the universe?

A Precious Gift to the World

Doug was a gift to the world as well. A person couldn’t help but look at little Dougie and smile. As a young boy, he was perpetually joyful—singing, whistling and laughing nonstop.

As a teenager attempting to live with angst, we could effortlessly annoy him by simply telling him “not to smile,” at which, of course, he grinned helplessly.

As a young man, discerning how to make his mark on the world, we know that whatever path he chooses, he will be a gift to those he encounters.

Just like Jesus is a gift both to us personally and to the world.

God’s Majesty in the Form of a Babe

Jesus was God’s most majestic gift to the world. He came in the majestic form of a tiny baby. Perfect physically. Perfect spiritually. Loved by his mother and earthly father. Loved by his Heavenly Father. Loved by the children who would become his bride—the church.

How does God’s august gift have to do with the month of August other than it being the birth month of my son? It has to do with living with thankfulness.

My internal thermometer is perpetually set on “high.” That means I’m always hot—especially in August. Once God sent us our Doug, though, my focus for the month of August was changed forever.

No longer does August mean the hottest month of the year. Now August means joy because I celebrate the month God blessed this world with our son.

By being thankful amid all circumstances –even the 110 degree temperatures of August, God reminded me that August doesn’t have to stand for the last big heat of summer. Rather August reminds me that the coolness of autumn waits just around the corner. So does the cool serenity of God’s love and grace wait for me every moment of every day.

God bless you, Doug for the child you were and the man you have become. May God actively pursue your heart. May you seek and find Him. May you follow Him all the days of your life.

  

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for showing us your majesty in this world. Thank you for your august nature, displaying it even as a tiny babe. Show us how to live with a happy heart, focusing on thankfulness in every situation. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Do you love the month of August? What about August do you think is most “august”?

FRESH AIR TO A STALE WORLD

Today my baby girl is 22. No, I won’t embarrass her by posting baby pictures online for the entire world wide web to see. Take my word for it. She was a beauty. And still is.

Nicole wasn’t one of those girly girls as a child. No pink frills. No lace. No ribbons. She wore jeans, cowgirl boots and an oversized wolf T-shirt until she turned 12. Then one day when I wasn’t paying attention, she went from total tomboy to young woman.

When I turned around, she took my breath away. Now that she’s moved away from home, every time she comes back it’s like she’s bringing fresh air with her. She fills the house with color and music and delight. Having her home is like breathing fresh air after a spring rain.

Before we become parents, we are still becoming the people God means us to be. We are still moving from childhood ourselves; learning to trust our never-quite-enough wisdom; understanding the world and our place in it. When we are blessed by that first child, he turns our world upside down and forces us to find a new place to perch.

When our first born arrived—our wonderful son—I remember my husband and I sitting quietly together holding our precious bundle of blue and whispering. “Life will never be the same.”

And it hasn’t been. We simply cannot imagine life without our children. When they arrived, it was as if God breathed fresh air into our lives and expanded our lungs and our hearts to contain the increased volume of love they brought. Every day our children showed us how to look at the same thing we saw yesterday and see it from fresh eyes. Every day our children showed us delight in things we had forgotten were delightful. Every day God showed us how to love our own children so we could finally understand His love for us.

One day 4-year old Nicole came running into my office, declaring, “Mommy, look what I found!”

Tearing myself away from the computer, I had half a second to wonder what could be so exciting to merit her enthusiasm.

There she stood, next to me, holding an egg beater, turning it slowly, rotating the beater blades like gears on a bicycle. I’d had that egg beater for 15 years, but to my 4-year old daughter, it was brand new; miraculous and exciting. And for a moment, it was exciting to me, too.

To children, everything is fresh and new. They remind us of the amazing things God has created for us in this world. Once reminded, can we continue to look at our world with the freshness of children? Can we retain our childlike love for God and a childlike gratitude for His gifts?

Perhaps we can, if we remember that we are His children.

Happy birthday, Nicole. You are a precious gift from God. He loves you and so do I.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, please help us never lose our childlike love for you. Help us to always see you as our Heavenly Father. I pray that we will always be a sweet blessing to you; a fresh breeze wafting up to heaven. Thank you for being our Heavenly Father and thank you for the fresh air we experience from the children you place in our lives. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Do you have an example of a time a child taught you how to look at something with fresh eyes?

WHERE LOVE RESIDES

We know God loves us. He blesses us daily in infinite and unfathomable ways. We have evidence of His love: creation, His gifts, our talents, our family and friends, Jesus’ sacrifice for our redemption.

But do we feel His love in a personal way?

We love God in return. We love Him for who He is and all He’s done. We love Jesus for his example and his teachings and sacrifice. We love the Holy Spirit who we acknowledge as our companion, our guide, our counselor and friend.

But do we feel love for the three persons of the Trinity in a personal way?

Showing our love isn’t the question. We can show our love by giving ourselves, our worries, our blessings, our sacrifices, our lives over to Him. The simple trust and obedience at the heart of Christianity is the purest way to show our love. We can also show our love by loving others in His name, serving others, sharing the Gospel, being His hands and feet in this world.

No, showing our love isn’t the question. The question is, do we feel His love and our love for Him? For me, the key to understanding how I feel God’s love and my love for Him has to do with how God created us and where love resides.

 

I love chocolate. That love starts on my taste buds, moves down to my stomach and zaps north, creating neurons stored inside my brain. (Okay, you scientists, please re-explain this for us!) 

I love a walk on the beach. That love starts with my vision of the endless horizon, the smell of the seaweed on the shore, the taste of salt spray on my lips, the rhythmic sound of the waves crashing to the shore and back, the feel of wet sand squishing between my toes. That love ends up stored inside my memory.  

  

My love for my children, my husband, my friends and family starts with commitment, expands with experiences and time spent together and develops into relationships. That love ends up stored someplace deep inside my heart.

But my love for God didn't start on my tongue or my vision or even in my heart. God placed a love for Him and a desire to know and love him more, within my very soul.

My love for God can grow as a result of a developing relationship with Him but it was always there because He placed it there when He chose me. My love for God is part of who I am.  

Love for my children and love for my God both develop because of experience and relationship. But they reside in different parts of me.

My love for people is heart love.

My love for my God is soul love.

We say we have a “heart” for this or that. We say we “love” this person or that thing. But what do we say about our soul? Our soul is more than what we like, what we do and who we interact with. Our soul is who God made us to be.

Once we are past our love for children or friends or country; once we have exhausted our desire for blessings and things and success and joy; beyond all that stands our ingrained longing to know and love God. He placed it in our souls before we were born. That love remains in our souls throughout eternity. To know and love God is our ultimate desire.

After we are gone from this world, after our earthly bodies have crumbled into dust, after everyone we love has died, our soul is what will remain. Our heart will be no more. But if we love God, have accepted Jesus’ salvation and have allowed the Holy Spirit into our lives, then who we ultimately are—our soul—will spend eternity loving God.

God speaks the language of love perfectly because He speaks to our soul. If we are quiet; if we allow our hearts and our minds to listen, our soul can hear him whisper.

And our soul can respond.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, help us to feel our soul love for you. Bring it out of the deepest part of us and into the light where we can praise you for it. Show us more of you so that we can worship and praise you more. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Have you accessed this soul love for God? How do you describe it?

A DEEPER LOVE: MEDITATION MONDAY

When I was a young mother with the most precious children God ever created, I couldn't believe He expected me to love Him more than I loved my children.

After all, my children came from Him. He blessed me with their precious lives. Didn’t He want me to love, nurture and protect them above all else? I would sacrifice my life for my kids. God the Father sacrificed His son, Jesus. Wasn't that the example He wanted me to follow? To be a good parent? To love my children above everything?

Or does that make them my idols? 

I have come to understand that my love for God is not above my love for my children; nor is it beneath my love for my children. Nor are they equal. The two simply cannot be compared. Likewise, I love Jim, the greatest husband in the history of the universe. I also love the other members of my family and my friends. But none of the ways I love those people can be compared to my love for God, because it is not the same kind of love.

• Do I love one child more than I love the other? No, I love them differently.
• Do I love my children more than I love my husband? No, I love them differently.
• Do I love my husband more than I love God? No, I love them differently.

In fact, my love for my children is a way for God is teaching me to understand His love in a personal and intimate way. It is how I can learn to love Him in return. I am the parent to my children. He is my Heavenly Father. My children give me a glimpse into God's love relationship with us.

My love for my children therefore causes me to love God with even deeper understanding.

It reached a pinnacle the day my daughter started college. As we drove away from the dorm and headed home, I realized I could no longer watch over her in her daily activities. But I also understood that as much as I loved her, God loved her even more. I therefore knew He was watching over her while I could not. I finally understood that my children are not my own. God had merely entrusted them to me until they could stand on their own alongside Him.

I love my children and my husband and my family and my friends. As wonderful as they are, I am unable to love them as deeply as I love God. Because God made me that way.  

It’s pointless to compare our love for others to our love for God.  God wins because our love for God and His love for us is the basis for everything. It is part of who we are as Christians. But because He first loved us, we are free to love Him and the people He has placed in our lives. With abundance.


PRAYER: Heavenly Father, we love you. And we love you with a higher love because you placed that love deep inside of us. Please show us how to know you more and how to love you above all else. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Have you wrestled with the question of whether you love certain people so much they have become like idols over your love for God? How have you dealt with that question?

YOUNG AT HEART

Birthdays are a celebration of life. Yesterday was mine. And I turned…well, older. You want to know how old? Nosey.

Okay, but first you have to understand my family. In the 34 birthdays I’ve celebrated with my husband, he’s yet to present me with a cake sporting all the candles set out neatly in a row. That would be just too normal.

No, hubby has trained the kids in proper birthday candle etiquette, according to his never-too-old-to-play approach to life. Yesterday, they made me a delicious cake with appropriately coded candles, shooting off in all directions—including horizontally. There were:

2 spiral-y orange candles representing                       25 YEARS EACH

1 pink and white striped candle representing         15 YEARS

7 small yellow candles representing                            1 NEGATIVE YEAR EACH

For the total you may have to get out your calculator and use advanced algebra.

No, I don’t feel 58. Usually I feel about 28. Some days I only feel 8. And every day I look at my kids and wonder: “How did they grow up when I haven’t gotten any older myself?”

Do you ever feel that way? As if you’re caught in a time warp, living a perennial childhood and one day someone is going to make you grow up?

I think a time warp mentality is part of God’s plan. As Christians, we start out with a simple faith, drinking it in as if it’s milk. Later as our faith grows, we chew on more difficult theology. Our faith is tested and strengthened. But through it all, as our faith grows stronger, I believe God wants us to continue to love Him with a child-like love.

How does a child love a parent? She loves with trust and hope. He loves eagerly and with everything he is. She grasps her mother’s hand as they step into the often terrifying world. He climbs into his father’s lap and rests his head on his shoulder. She falls asleep in her father’s arms, knowing she will be safe, whatever nightmares may come.

Isn’t that how our faith and trust in our God should be?

Birthdays are a celebration of life. But our life in Christ? It should be forever young at heart.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, renew in my heart a child-like love for you. Help me trust you more, leaning on you in every situation you place me in. Help me retain a love for you filled with eagerness to do my best for you and to love you with everything I am. Help my faith never grow old. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Have you retained a child-like love for Jesus?

I BLOG, YOU BLOG --- WE BLOG

Surprised to see me in blog-o-sphere?  No, it's not an "April Fool's Joke."

I’m so un-techie, the idea of blogging made my eyeballs explode. Then I learned something that changed my mind.

“Blog” is short for “web log.”  It’s keeping a log on the web. Journaling. Documenting life. For a left-brained gal who lives for lists AND writing, that was too irresistible to…well, resist!

I learned something else. “Web log” was originally spelled as one word: “weblog.” That means you can divide the word so it reads “we blog.” Suddenly I wanted to be part of that “we.” The “we” that “blogs.”

And now I am.

I blog. You blog. He, she, it blogs. We blog.

Our focus here will be encouragement. Encouragement for Christians. Encouragement for writers. Encouragement for those of us who are stewards of one of God’s most precious creations: children.

As Christians, we’ll chat about the tenants of our faith, our relationship with the Trinity and with each other. As writers, we’ll chat about why we write, what we write and for who. We’ll chat about kids and how we can share with them what we know of this amazing world and our amazing God. Through it all, we’ll discover how we can be an encouragement to others.

And threaded throughout every post will be a way to tie it back to faith.

I have friends who dream about writing a book "one day." Do you have that dream, too? Maybe it's time to wake up and live your dream. Or perhaps you’re already moving along on that writing road. I will be participating in a terrific conference this weekend for children’s writers and illustrators. Next week I’ll share with you the jewels sprinkled throughout the conference by the editors, agents, authors and illustrators who love children.

Until then, if you’re a writer or dream of being one, go to the "For Writers" page on my website http://www.carolsmagicquill.com/. There you will find several articles on writing. Maybe one will encourage you.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Are you a Christian? A writer? A teacher or parent? All of the above? In what areas do you need encouragement?