Holding On




"I want to hold on to my kids a little longer," a parent explained while discussing why she decided not to send her little one to preschool.  I don't blame her.  Not one bit.  Our kids are going to be in school for many, many years to come.  If you keep them at home, they will benefit from extra time with mommy for one or two extra years before entering kindergarten. 

Bully for you, I say. 

"That's the question of the day.  Everyone is asking me when my little one will start preschool," she continued.  While I watched her 4-year-old yipping and skipping around the park, I knew her mom and I had something in common...besides being moms of little ones.  We love our kids.  We love being moms.  We are not rushing, or at this point, even willing, to relinquish our mom duties and joys to someone else.


A teacher who may or may not see the wonderful potential in your child - their creative energy, their fantastic abilities, their gosh-darn cute smiles and the funny things they say.  We treasure these things in our hearts and wonder how these traits will shape who our children become one day.  Do preschool teachers treasure their students?  I suppose some do.  They work very hard with our 3's and 4's, trying to introduce them to their ABC's and 123's, with lots of fun and variety thrown in. 

 I'm sure they do a wonderful job with the children they have, but the education they receive is a different quality than the education they could be receiving with their mothers.  We love and adore our children - sure there are times when we need a break, or wish for a week's vacation apart from them - but when it comes to the end of the day and we peek in on our serene sleeping little ones, we know it's all worth it.  We also know that it will all pass away too quickly and that, if at all possible, we should treasure each moment with these itty bitty people God has entrusted to us.


"Children are a heritage from the Lord,
    offspring a reward from him."  (Psalm 127:3)


God treasures children.  He treasured his own Son and gave him the best upbringing he could, with parents who were humble followers of God.  They taught him day by day how to live, how to honor God, how to serve, how to work hard, how to love, how to be content in all circumstances, how to seek God earnestly when there were questions and uncertainties in life.  These things shape a person's life, a person's character.  God has planted in mothers this capacity to treasure their children, wanting only the best for them.  We want our little ones to grow in to wonderful, successful, God-loving, God-seeking, God-following adults.

So the question is...do we ignore this calling to cultivate these little treasures by passing them off to someone else to nurture in their early years...or do we listen to the cry of our hearts to hold on to them as long as we can?

I vote for holding on. 



  Snuggling and reading together with my littles.  Love it!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Snow Day!!!

Image
Ah, the first snow day of the new year!  The kids are so excited - they can't wait to don their snow gear and plunge out into the snowy world for fun fun fun! I personally look forward to putting layer upon layer of shirts, hats, socks, mittens, and snow-proof outerwear on my children - 30 minutes of effort for an hour of fun. Yes, I have finally reached the point where the 30 minutes of snow-garbing is less than the time they spend outside.  Except for my 3-year-old.  It's his first year where snow is actually fun, but I don't see him lasting out there more than 10 minutes. When they were two or under, my children would reappear in the house within 5 minutes of their release into the winter wonderland to announce that they're cold and they're finished and can I please help them take all their soggy things off. So, if your children aren't quite old enough yet, or your children become cold easily and can't hack playing outside in the frigid temper...
Read more

Unexpected Item

Image
Do you remember when Walmart first installed the self-checkout lines?  They were so cool! Over a decade ago, I went with my future husband to pick up a few items at Walmart and had a funny surprise:  while I was waiting for him to check out his purchases, I leaned up against the checkout area.  When he placed his purchase there, the machine loudly declared, "UNEXPECTED ITEM!"  Josh looked at me with a funny grin on his face and said, "Yep - You're my unexpected item!"  He realized all the items had specific weights and my leaning on the scale (of which I was unaware) caused the alarm to go off. Neither one of us expected to find the perfect match, yet there we were! As married life has progressed, I've heard the mental shout of "UNEXPECTED ITEM" many times.  After two years of marriage, we decided it was time to try to have a baby.  When the baby came, it was an Unexpected Item.  I thought having a baby meant having a sweet little someone...
Read more

Let Dads Be Dads (Part Two)

Image
I recall my husband's first adventure with our daughter - he wanted to take her away for a few hours to give me a break and show her off to his best friend.  I packed up the diaper bag and prepared a bottle, clicked her snugly in her carseat, then kissed them both goodbye.  I cried.  I know, sappy - but it was the first time since the day she was born that we'd been separated.  I prayed for their safety - I couldn't have the two people I cared most about in the world getting in a car accident.  It just wouldn't do!  I spent the next few hours washing laundry, catching up on dishes, and resting on the couch.  Something I hadn't done in months.  When he returned, he was shell shocked.  He said the baby was fine on the ride up, but began crying after his arrival and refused to take a bottle.  After a half hour of crying, neither of the men could hear each other, so he gave up and came home.  Defeated.  Discouraged. But I ...
Read more