Part 6 - SIMPLICITY (Beautiful reminders from Mitten Strings from God)
I have been wanting to re-share some posts from the days when I was a young mother - gems I had extracted from one of my wow-books*.
I am re-posting the series of 11 parts here, specially for the young mothers around me. May your journey of motherhood be as beautiful and as enjoyable as the Lord intended it to be for us!
[*Wow-books are those that have shaped my life in some ways, and they occupy a special place in my heart and on my bookshelf, treasured.]
"Two weeks before Easter, I visit a friend whose children are the same age as mine. when I arrive, she is just cleaning up after an afternoon of colouring eggs wtih her son and daughter. Ther are Ukrainian masterpieces, painstakingly created with special tools, dyes, and wax. In addition, they have made stenciled eggs, brilliant glitter eggs, and marbelised eggs, all from kits ordered from a catalog. When the children head outside to play, my friend sweeps glitter off the floor, scrubs the table, and washes tiny paint brushes. The results of their labours are breathtaking, but she confesses with a sigh, she has done of most of them herself. The Ukranian kit proved too complicated for the kids, and the stencils were difficult to do. The children each made a couple of glitter eggs, but they ended up with glue all over their hands and soon lost interest."
So often, it seems, we are the ones who make our own lives more complicated than they need to be.
We set the bar too high, take on too much, turn small doings into big ones.
There is more to see, more to do, more to buy, than ever before.
And how easy it is to fall into thinking that living well means partaking of all that's offered.
We often end up offering too much to our children and taking on too much ourselves.
What message do our own excesses send to our children?
In our efforts to create special occasions for them, are we losing sight of what's really important?
It takes conviction to say "this is enough"
Whether it be enough holiday events, enough guests at a party, enough presents or simply enough activites for next sunday.
We can choose simplicity over complication.
Watching us manage our own lives sensibly, our children will learn to set limits too.
Once we take the pressure off ourselves to do things in a big way, we find more reasons to celebrate life's little moments.
For children, every day holds potential for celebration and ceremony - a song, a poem read aloud, a ritual, or a special snack - it doesnt take much to create a celebration that affirms life and connects us to the natural order of things: animals, wind, sky and earth.
In simplicity, there is freedom - freedom to do less and to enjoy more.
May we help our children discover the "fullness" in having less and doing less, and allow them to experience the magic of simplicity!
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