Let Them Be Little

Christmas is just around the corner and I’m so not ready!!

There are too many things I have got to get done and not enough time to do them all. 

And, to top it all off, we have family coming in this weekend because my 7 year old is being baptized.  While we are very excited, we are also looking at having a major clean house until midnight kind of Friday!

So as I was getting ready for my day, I was going through the list in my head of things that needed to be done and one still sticks out like a sore thumb; the Christmas Tree.

My tree is nice, don’t get me wrong.  But the funny thing is, the ornaments are all in one spot.  The kids’ eye level and not any higher.  They could not wait to get the ornaments on there….I had ribbon and a “themed plan” and they were dancing around putting the ornaments on the tree with Brenda Lee’s “Rocking Around The Christmas Tree” and other Christmas favorites playing in the background.

Oh, and last night, they were decorating the bannister with paper chains and snowflakes, all cut from construction paper.  “Look, mommy, it’s just like Buddy the elf,” they said. (From “Elf” the movie)  “Oh, I see,” I said…secretly thinking that will all come down by Saturday nwhen everyone gets here.

My husband and I are more the organized sort of people.  I used to host a tree trimming party and have our friends over to help us decorate the tree.  It was fun and  I always served dinner afterwards.  Then, the kids were born and we stopped having those parties and having the kids birthday parties because they both were born close to Christmastime. The ornaments were still my responsibility and I loved being able to get out certain ones and put them on the way I wanted them.  Then, when I was asleep, my husband would re-arrange them to be more symmetrical…a trait that I figure is a little OCD.  No matter, the tree looked better.

So as I was looking at that tree thinking my hubby said he would put that ribbon on it and get those ornaments spread out, my mind went to this Scripture:

Matthew 18:3 (The Message)

 

 ^2-5For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me. “

Whoa!  Hold up!  I’m childlike!  I love snowflakes and hot cocoa with marshmallows.  Nope, that is not what this is saying.

It means I need to let my kids be little and enjoy the season and the reason for it in the way that they see it.  Not try to rearrange their perception of the tree or even the nativity story.  I need to learn about God though their eyes.

How often do I correct my children when it is not needed?  I don’t mean the grammar when they use poor tenses of verbs, but the manner in which they do things.  I need to be less rigid and let a little more childlike in….And I need to lighten up on them.

My mind also goes to that song Richie McDonald wrote with Billy Dean, “Let Them Be Little.”

“Let Them Be Little, cause they’re only that way for a while,
Give them hope, give them praise, give them love everyday,
Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle,
Oh, just let them be little.”

So tonight as they continue decorating the house with paper chains and snowflakes or doing a manger scene with a lion and a rabbit in the mix, I need to just let them. And remember the real reason for the season is not to stress out but to reflect as my kids do on who God is and how we can celebrate His son’s gift to us.

My Grown Up Christmas List

In a little town across the river from New Orleans, sits a modest home probably built in the 1960′s.  A couple in their late 80′s/early 90′s live there with their two adult children, both girls, unmarried.  And while most children who live with their parents are rebellious teenagers, these children are completely helpless and need their parents to survive.

These ladies, in their late forties, have multiple sclerosis.  They are both bedridden and in diapers.

Every morning, the mom, Elaine, gets up and makes sure both Renae and Lynda are properly fed and gets her husband, Larry, to help her change them. These adult women were once vibrant and successful ladies.  One of them was a flight attendant for years until someone actually turned her in when they caught her a little shaky to pour a cup of coffee for a passenger.  And that’s when she was laid off and the disability kicked in.

Over in the next parish, Lynda and Renae have another sister, in her fifties who, although she also has MS, walks with a walker and visits from time to time.

I look at this family and my heart just aches.  Because how long can a mother take care of her children?  My resolve as a parent says as long as necessary.  But one day, there will not be anyone to take care of these grown ladies who are completely dependent on someone to feed and change them.  These aging parents have their own health issues.  In normal circumstances, they would have their kids caring for them. Instead, they have a difficult time….as they strain their backs lifting each girl to bathe them. 

I sit back and cry out, “God, why?  Why is it this way for this sweet family? How unfair and sad!” 

Isaiah 55:8-11 (The Message) says:

“I don’t think the way you think.
   The way you work isn’t the way I work.”
         God’s Decree.
“For as the sky soars high above earth,
   so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
   and the way I think is beyond the way you think.”

His ways are different than ours.  He has a plan for them, and I have to be willing to let Him use whatever means necessary to care for them.  You know, I don’t want them being wards of the state.  I don’t know the first thing about caring for MS patients either.  All I know is that there’s a family on the other side of the river who will one day need more than what government or family can give them.  And I pray that somehow God will make a way to help them, even if he has to use me to do it.

Last night, while doing some Christmas shopping, my daughter asks me, “Mom, what do YOU want for Christmas?”

My grown up Christmas Wish: more than anything for myself, I wish that there was a way to have all of that sweet family cared for under one roof; with 3 meals a day that Elaine doesn’t have to make, a full-time nurse who is able to care for both the aging parents and their adult children.  I wish there was some way that they could all live together in the twilight of their lives.

Extreme Home Makeover? Are  you out there?  Are you up for that challenge?