Thursday, August 2, 2012

Dishes remain with us always...

"Mommy! Color! Color, Mommy!" echoed through my living room. My 2-year-old gazed at me with her big blue eyes, pleading with me to color with her. She's what I call a "Social Colorer." She loves to color in her coloring book, but she wants to do it WITH someone--not just by herself.

Feeling slightly exasperated, I looked at the piles of laundry waiting to be folded and the kitchen sink filled with dishes. I did not have time to color! Work needed to be done! But then I looked at those big blue eyes, and Christ's words flooded my mind, "For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always." The words then changed in my mind, to become, "For ye have the dishes and laundry with you always; but this little girl ye have not always."

Feeling thoroughly chastened, I relented, and spent a delightful hour coloring pictures with my daughter, and felt much better afterward for making her little heart happy. Yes, the chores remain with me always, but these moments with my children are fleeting fast. I can not believe that two years have passed since Danielle's entrance into this world. Only yesterday, I held a small, fragile little girl in my arms...yet today, a thriving, strong, energetic, talkative toddler bounces through my home, and finds little time to sit and cuddle with Mommy.

As I realize how these past two years have sped by me, I am cherishing more and more each and every single moment I have with my adorable son. I cuddle with him whenever I have the chance, because I know a day is fast approaching when he will be too busy and active to want to sit and cuddle with his mother. I love each smile, every coo, and all the slobbery kisses he places on my cheek--for each one lasts only for this moment, and soon becomes part of the past that can never be reclaimed.

Yes, dishes remain with us always. But our children do not. Cherish the moment. Each one comes straight from the Father and is an invaluable gift. So forget the dishes, and sit on the floor and color with your little one today!

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" 
(James 1:17).