The Beauty & Innocence of Children

It was Sunday the 14th of February and my 2nd sons 4th birthday. It was turning out to be a lovely birthday for him. He had a party in the afternoon and it was loud, busy, and lots of fun. It was during this time that I was overwhelmed by the beauty and innocence of my sweet boys. We'd all sat down on the lounge floor, after filling our plates with cake and other goodies. For the first time since the party started it had gone pretty quiet while everyone was tucking into their yummies. All of a sudden, out of the blue, my eldest jumps up, starts walking towards me and loudly declares.. "Mummy.. I love you so much!" (AWE!) then my youngest promptly turns to me and says.. "Love you all day long Mummy" and finally birthday boys jumps up and also declares his love for me! In front of all their friends (and mine) :O) What a happy moment for me. I sat there afterwards (my heart skipping with joy) thinking.. it won't be long until they will be too embarrassed to declare their love for me.. if they even wanted to, which will probably be debatable. I was thinking how lovely it is that they have no fear of what others think of them by what they say.. no embarrassment, just beautiful, innocent child minds. How I want to push the pause button now.. cling on to the loud declarations of love, cling onto the beautiful innocence which will all too soon be gone.

In the eve of the next day, I came back to these thoughts and had an intense desire to prevent my children from having to go through the awakening to the real world. Not wanting them to grow up, because I know that that means pain, hard lessons, disappointment. I love these little boys so much and I don't want them to have to go through any of the hard stuff. But then I realized.. if they did not go through the hard stuff, they would have no life at all, they would not learn how to relate to people, they wouldn't understand real love, they wouldn't understand sacrifice. Then I started thinking about how God loves us. How He disciplines us, sends us through fires to strengthen us.. He must feel like I do, He must have the desire to not want harm to come to us.. to not want us to go through these valleys that we walk, but He knows what is at the other side of that valley, He knows the blessings He is going to pour on us during the valley and He knows the understanding and the deeper faith that we will have afterwards.. it is a reward, a treasure, which is completely priceless. He promises to walk with us and even carry us through these valleys, so we are never, ever alone. As awful and as tough as some of the trials I have had to walk through in my life, I always end up saying afterwards that I wouldn't change it because of what I learned from it and the blessings that were poured out on me at that time, but goodness I couldn't do it again! Trials and difficulties come for our good.. to train us and strengthen us, to mold our characters to be more like Jesus. And that, of course, for a Christian is our ultimate desire - to be like Jesus. He gave us a perfect example, and as twisted as it may seem, we should be thankful for the trials that come our way, as it is only through these, that we are transformed into His likeness. What a privilege that He would take the time to gently mold us. He is the potter.. and we are the clay.

So with all that thought out in my mind, I can look forward to watching what God will do in my children's lives.. how He is going to mold them into His likeness. It will be hard and painful to watch as the refining process takes place, but how much joy it will bring to see the transformations. O how wonderful it will be to see the hand of God at work in my children's lives.

For now though.. I shall savour every last minute of the sweet innocence! :O)