Lessons from My Daughter

Being a mother has taught me many lessons about the love of God. I don't claim to understand it, but I feel like motherhood has given me a greater understanding of the depth of his love for us, his children.



Abigail is at an age where words are a big deal. She's learning new ones and attempting to say a few things. Most come out as nonsense, but she's learning that words are a way to communicate and get a message across. The word that I of course long for is Mama. She has been able to make those sounds for months, but I think only recently has realized that I am Mama. The truth about that word right now though is that she only uses is when she's whining. She'll stand at my legs and whine mamamamamama. Of course has her mother I want to pick her up and comfort her and take care of her needs, even when she's whining.



Yesterday, I was struck like a ton of bricks by the parallels between this relationship with my daughter and my relationship with my heavenly Father. How many times in my life do I only go to Him when I'm whining. I go to him and pray (whine) that something isn't good, and I need Him to fix it or make it better. Of course as my Father, God wants to help me when I'm hurting or sad or something has gone wrong. But just like I long to hear my child say Mama just because she's happy to see me, God wants that from me too. Duh. I wait for the afternoon where I go pick her up and she says Hi Mama. My mama's heart wants her to be excited to see. When she's upset, I will run to her to help her, but I want my name to be spoken by her in joy.



God deserves that and so much more for me. If he cares when I am hurting, of course he also cares when I'm excited. He wants to hear it all. He wants me to talk to him. He wants me to be excited to see him and have a conversation. God just wants me to want to talk to him. He wants me to say his name and be glad to talk to him.

I'm so thankful for the little lessons that God allows me to learn through my daughter. I'm the one supposed to be teaching her, but often it seems like the other way around.