EquippedMama

It is remarkable the toys that entertain our littles every day.

At my house. our youngest can be kept occupied with a small wooden farm for enormous amounts of time. She is happy with this simple toy until she discovers how much more fun she could have tearing up our collection of children’s books. Or she notices the bottle cap that someone accidentally left on the floor (cue the mama 5-yard dash). Babies live life from distraction to distraction.

Distraction to avoid cluster-feeding all. Day. Long.

Distraction to make it just a little closer to the next scheduled naptime.

Distraction to wait patiently in the grocery pickup line.

While this wouldn’t be a reasonable way for our older children to live life, it makes a lot of sense for our infants. And, while we might never outright say it, giving a distraction to an almost-brokenhearted baby is a way we are gently beginning our training process. Because when our infant turns three they simply can’t cry every time they need a snack or are tired. By the time they are five they cannot go to bed every night after being rocked to sleep for 45 minutes. Somewhere along the way our children have to transition from being distracted to being trained.

The writer of Hebrews talks about a need for a similar type of maturing when he wrote;

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. ¹³ For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

Hebrews 5:12-14 New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.

It’s way too easy to get stymied in our spiritual growth, especially in the season of motherhood. It’s really hard to have a serious quiet time, especially if you are waking up multiple times to feed an infant, or take a toddler back to bed, or have a preschooler who wakes up with the dawn. But we are called to be constantly in a state of growth. So what does that look like?

In the state where I live, most every season can be a gardening season. The truly successful gardener understands, however, that nothing can grow in the harsher months without serious intervention. So in the coldest months of the year, fragile seedlings begin their life within the sheltered confines of our guest room. In July and August, my husband faithfully waters his tomatoes, beans and squash so they can weather the blistering heat. Springtime is the gardeners dream here, with ample sunshine, occasional rain, and minimal plant-eating bugs.

Maybe you’re in a January-in-Texas season of your spiritual life. Perhaps you need to be in a greenhouse environment where you are consistently encouraged to grow. Great. Identify that this is where you’re at and find how to make that possible. Perhaps you have a church home where someone can help mentor you. If you can find a wise, godly older woman to help you in this season that can be an amazing blessing. Maybe that’s not a possibility, at least you can find great online mentors that can help you grow in God’s Word (there’s a couple great options here and here).

Perhaps you are in a season where things are rocking and rolling. Maybe your kids are sleeping great and you pop out of bed every morning rested and ready to go. That’s wonderful! Relish this season, delve deep in God’s Word and cherish the time of growth He has offered you.

Maybe you feel like our poor tomato plants in the middle of July. Maybe the sun is beating down on you and you feel like you can’t catch a break. Just like every other season, God gives the grace for you to grow, too!

Mamas, there is a time and a place for light up toys and distraction tactics. Otherwise we might never get a shower the first year of our children’s lives. But there is also a time to make an intentional effort to grow in godliness, to delve deep into God’s Word and reach the maturity He has for you.

What season are you in?

Grow wherever you are.

Photo of baby by Polina Tankilevitch on Pexels.com