Do your kids represent something to you? I mean other than love or an example of our
relationship with God. Do they represent
seasons in your life?
I realized today that each of my kids “represent” something
different to me. I guess it has
something to do with each stage of life I was in at the time I had them. They are kind of like my Ebenezer rocks, as
I call them, in reference to 1 Samuel
7:12, “Samuel then took a large stone and placed it
between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer (which means
"the stone of help"), for he said, ‘Up to this point the LORD has
helped us!’" (If you’ve never studied this passage in the bible, I highly
recommend it!)
Colby represents change to me. He is my firstborn. Before I became a mother, I was not a “kid
person.” I was awkward around kids. I didn’t know what to do with them. I did not want to hold babies. I was the baby in my family so I had no
experience being around little ones. I
didn’t even want to be a mother before I got married. Apparently, there was even talk amongst
family members as to whether or not I would be a good mother because of it
(hurtful, but we won’t get into that, no joke). But when I had that baby boy and they put
him in my arms, I FELT MYSELF CHANGE. I
was suddenly a new person. I was suddenly a better person. It was no longer all about me. Selfishness was thrown out the window. I suddenly had purpose. I had a better understanding about how God
feels about each of us. It was like an
awakening. It wasn’t that I suddenly
loved kids and babies because I now had one of my own. It was that I now had this amazing person to
take care of and love and I was his mother.
I WAS HIS MOTHER! I knew at that
moment that God had put me on earth to be his mother, and I was perfectly fine
with that. Never in my life had I felt a
purpose. Honestly, I didn’t. He changed me for the better.
Sydney represents happiness.
When I had her, I had the mom thing down and I was a rock star, if I do
say so myself. I was in my groove and
HAPPY. Happy with life, happy with my
new purpose, happy to have another
little one to call my own. We didn’t
know what she was going to be, so when the doctor said we had a little girl, we
were so HAPPY! And she was the easiest baby. Laid back and easygoing. And she still is today. When she was in 2nd grade, her
teacher gave her the award for being “Most Flexible” because she was always willing
to just go with the flow. Her
grandmother even called her “her happy baby.”
PURE HAPPINESS. This is what she
represents for me. The enjoyment and
happiness we get out of this life that God has given us.
Brady represents perseverance and laughter. Does that sound like an oxymoron? Ha! Well,
let me explain. When I was pregnant with
Brady, times were tough. Our marriage
was struggling, we were financially strapped, and I had gone back to school
(online) to become a transcriptionist.
This continued while he was a baby and I started working from home. Combine all that with the fact that Brady was
my high-maintenance baby and I also had two other kids to tend to. It made for some hard days (and nights). BUT WE PERSEVERED. We
made it through. Things got better. We came out stronger as a family. And on the other side of this, there is
laughter. There is now this funny kid
that makes me laugh out loud on a daily basis.
After all that struggle, all that guilt and heartache, there is now such
joy and laughter.
God has taught me and shown me things through my kids. They are not only gifts from Him. They are the stones that have been placed at
certain points in my life that I can look back on and say, “Wow. Look where I’ve been. I have CHANGED for the better, I am HAPPY, I have PERSEVERED, and I have plenty of LAUGHTER!"
