Today marks a year since F moved into my house and flipped my life upside down and round and round! It’s been a whirlwind of emotions and full of ups and downs, but the year has gone so quickly and it’s now impossible to imagine my life without F in it. I don’t think I knew how I would feel and because I felt like I was thrown in the deep end I don’t think I had time to process it.
Those first few weeks I felt like an emotionless robot just getting the job of looking after F done- providing for his needs and keeping him alive. I remember thinking ‘I know I am going to love you because I have made a commitment to love you but I can’t say I love you yet.’
Did I feel guilty about this? Yes! But….. I knew that I was choosing to love him and God had chosen this little boy to be given into my care for the rest of his life, what a privilege, so there was no choice but to love! And it is safe to say my love for F grows day by day! F has taught me so much this last year and I am so so thankful to God for trusting me with this precious little boy. I’ve had many teachers in my life and although Mr Charman is up there as my best teacher, no teacher beats my 2 year old teacher F!
They say ‘learn from your elders’ and there’s no doubt that’s true but I also believe we can learn so much from children!
In fact Jesus said so too…… “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” I’m hoping some of the lessons my 2 year old teacher has taught me will challenge you too….
Lesson 1 – Take time to stop and smell the flowers! Most Sundays without fail, while the singing is going on, F will ask me to carry him round the church to each vase of flowers so he can smell them. How often do we stop and smell the flowers?! (Not necessarily literally!) We need to remember to take time to pause, to slow down and thank God for the daily blessings we have.
Lesson 2 – Let’s do it together! My favourite thing F says at the moment is “let’s do it together!” As he speaks those words, God reminds me that he wants to do things together with me, but so much of the time I shut him out and want to take control and do things my own way! May I know that God daily is saying to me ‘let’s do it together’.
Lesson 3 – We become like those we spend time with! F (unfortunately for him) is picking up on my mannerisms, the things I say and how I behave. He is saying “Right said Fred”, he is doing crazy dancing and is raising his hands when listening to worship songs. He is like me because he spends time with me. Often I think to myself ‘I wish I was more like Jesus’ and the reality is I will be more like Jesus the more time I spend with him, so what am I waiting for?!
Lesson 4– God is so patient, loving & forgiving! I have lost count of the amount of times I have said ‘No… we do not hit’. I will be honest, sometimes I have got cross and haven’t handled his hitting as I would have like but…… have I stopped loving him?!…… NO! Have I forgiven him?! … Yes! If I, an imperfect (yes I know hard to believe!) human am able to be patient, loving and forgiving how much more is God able to be patient, loving and forgiving with us. I am so thankful that he picks me up each time I fall down, that His love and mercy is new every morning and that Jesus took my sin and shame on himself so I could have a relationship with my heavenly father.
Lesson 5 – Everybody loves me! F recently has every so often been saying ‘Everybody loves me!’ He is so secure in who he is and the fact that people love him! I often find myself (as seen in previous post) trying to work to make sure everybody loves me, I definitely do not say to myself ‘everybody loves me’. But actually the truth is as lovely as it is to know people love us (and I’m sure some people do….don’t they?!) the only love that will truly satisfy is to know we are loved by our heavenly Father who made heaven and earth.
As Augustine said…..
“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”
My prayer is that I will be so secure in the Father’s love for me and that will help me feel safe and secure to love others and accept love from others too. So there we have it – 5 lessons from my 2 year old teacher. I hope you find him as good a teacher as I do! Thank you God for F and teaching me through him.
