With the busyness of Summer and family and fun…and decreased productivity…this post will be brief but heartfelt.

I don’t know how you feel today.

Maybe all is great and life is full and sufficient and whole. You can’t believe you get the chance to nurture young souls.

Perhaps that’s not you…

You may be waking up and dreading the long day ahead.

Your plans to spend quality time with your kids hasn’t quite panned out. More T.V. has been watched than you’d care to admit to the American Pediatric Association. Grand adventures and homemade activities seem like too much work after late night bedtimes, whiny voices and squabbling siblings.

When each child keeps begging and pleading for more of something and a friend calls for help and the housework keeps being undone instead of finished…you just want to give up. I just want to give up. 

Here is a vision I’ve been repainting in my own head.

May it find a spot in yours as well:

The Most High God.

The Lord our God.

The Mighty One of Israel.

He is right by your side.

Not only by your side…He goes before you.

God is present every where at once.

He is infinite.

Therefore God is infinitely present everywhere.

God is with you now.

And right now? He is with you in the future.

and with you in the past.

He is with you in the past, present and future…at the same moment. 

simply put?

He surrounds you.

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. {Psalm 91:1}

Since He surrounds us, then like the walls of a building surround a person He becomes our shelter, our dwelling place…

I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. {Psalm 91:2}

rest in His shadow. find comfort in the building God forms around you. He fights your battles for you. 

You and I? We are not mothering alone.

The best part?

He also surrounds our children.

He is with them now and with them now as adults. For Him now and future is one moment.

So our fears about how our kids will turn out…in God’s view? He sees the full package: child to adult to eternity.

He gives us a simple command: love them.

We are only to be faithful to love.

love God. love others.

rest in that today. 

I have set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure…

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy. {Psalm 16:8-11}