It was one morning last week, where it struck me. Nothing out of the ordinary was happening. I was on my hands and knees cleaning up yogurt split from my youngest throwing her breakfast on the ground. She would rather nurse all morning , than eat any food on her tray.
It occurred to me that most of my mothering career , yes Career , was spent bending down. Bending over.
It was in that moment I lifted my head to look around. Time stopped for a moment and all was quiet. Toys scattered across the floor. Snack trash galore and so many things I had to bend down for. I felt Holy Spirits presence with me as I continued to bend down the rest of the day, and into that week. It became an honor to bend down.
As mothers we bend all day. Bend to pick up neglected toys, food and trash. Crayons and colored pencils. But we bend in other ways.
We bend to give good night kisses and hugs. We bend to get on their level to comfort them when they fall. We bend when we have to discipline their tiny disobedient ways, and to love them effectively afterwards. Our backs hurt at the end of a long day of bending.
We bend because we care. And we bend because we do have the hardest job on the planet. Bending to love.
But in all of our bending , we can count it as an honor and a privilege to have someone to bend for. To have someone shorter than us to exhaust our backs for.
Today as you bend to kiss and hug and pick up old raisins from underneath your sofa, I pray a blessing of strength not only to your physical back bone, but to your spiritual one as well.
I pray The Lord would guide you throughout this day. Making wise decisions for your family. For your children. For yourself.
When we bend , without fear of failing it’s a a good experience . It’s stretches our muscles and we become stronger. The longer we bend to love , we learn when to bend and when to stand up straight.
When we bend we are serving and when we serve we are loving our creator. It’s almost as if He made them short for us to kneel before him as we serve.
It’s all redemptive in the end. One day our children will be bending to care for us , but until then let’s keep bending.
