I Desire to Nurture

I spend a lot of time planning, printing, cutting and laminating in this homeschooling gig. And that’s okay. I want to teach my girls all they need to know.

This week, one of the focuses is learning to tell time, on an analog clock. I have activities and games. I have laminated pieces, or I will before I sleep tonight, and dry erase markers.

By Friday, I hope we are telling time.

But, that is not all I want, by a long shot.

I prayed the same thing over each of my girls as I met them, “We love you. We pray that you come to know Jesus and follow Him all the days of your life. There is nothing more important.” That is what I believe and know to be true.

Toward that end, we go to church, we go to AWANA (Bible Club), Pioneer Girls (think Girl Scouts) and, yes, even homeschool.

But I realized something glaringly obvious today. I/We do all that, but I rarely pray for my girls. I DO all the right things, all the while terrified they will walk away from Jesus when they get older.

Why? I live with that fear for two reasons. First, it is something I can’t control. Their faith is their own. They have to decide to let Jesus into their lives or to not. Second, I have been trying to do it all in my own power. I have been trying to do all the right things to get the right result. The right things are good, but they alone, will not get me where I desire to have my children be. That, is the Lord’s work. It is my job to pray. To lift up each of my lovely girls to the Lord. To commend their present and their future to Him. I also need to give my present and future to the Lord. Only He can change me, and the things I do as a sinful human to drive them away from their Heavenly Father. I desire to draw them to the Lord, not away.

I have a long ways to go on all of those fronts. I don’t do all the right things perfectly. I don’t pray for them perfectly. I definitely don’t act in a Godly manner perfectly.

Thankfully the Lord’s mercies are new every morning (or every 5:00 pm when a mama is reminded to pray) and He DOES hold my girls in His hands and He loves them even more than I do. That fact blows my mind, humbles me, and reassures me.

I desire not only to teach my children, I desire to nurture them. And with the Lord, and hubby’s help, I will.