My Son’s Posture... and My Heart Lately
Today is my hubby’s birthday!
He took the day off work, and my sister blessed us by watching the kiddos while he and I grabbed some lunch. He and our oldest just left to see Superman at the movies, and my oldest daughter headed out to run errands with my sister.
I say that all to say, I have a quiet moment while three of my little ones are napping—lol. I really savor these moments to read physical books or write. It quite literally fills my cup.
So can I share something with you that I’ve been thinking about??
Recently, my little sister encouraged me to start taking more pictures of myself. I take plenty of photos of the kids when we’re out and about, but I usually find it inconvenient to flip the camera around and take a selfie.
Lately though, I’ve been scrolling through old photos at night—and I’ve noticed quite a few pictures of me in my phone.
Turns out, my 3-year-old has been taking them!
She’s randomly snapped pictures of me without me even realizing it.
You should see all the awkward shots she’s taken—haha.
But one awkward one actually stands out as my favorite.
It’s this one.
a pic of me and my precious son.
This pic perfectly encapsulates my son’s disposition towards me right now when he lays on me.
Content.
Settled.
Not worried about a thing.
At peace.
He looks like how I long to be. How I am many times—but not always.
His posture reminds me of what it means to “abide in Christ.”
For months, I’ve been pondering what it truly means to abide. My husband and I have had long, winding conversations about it in passing moments. Then, one night, I sat down and wrote out my thoughts.
Take a peek. I pray it resonates with someone.
Oh, to abide.
One who abides (in Christ) is marked with a gentleness, grieved at sin's insolence, stablized even as the earth trembles at the approach of Christ's coming.
But what does it look like to abide as a tired mother?
To rest in the midst of the spill, the diaper, the uncooked dinner, grocery list, and dance lesson?
To abide is to choose to cry the tear, trusting He collects every single one of them.
To wipe your baby’s bottom, trusting that he will one day see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
To open the Word, though wearily, having faith that the one verse your eyes caress will multiply within your soul and feed your inner being like the boy with the fish and loaves.
It is to rest your head at night knowing your Father holds everything-including your aching body, chipped nail, stretched belly, hopeful heart, and mind (which mulls over the Amazon cart list)- in the palm of His hands.
To abide isn't to linger or visit for a while.
To abide is to set up shop. To build a home of brick and mortar. To say as Moses did, "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not." (Exodus 33:15)
Yes, to abide is akin to the eyes of the young child who looks frantically in a sea of strangers until her eyes land on the one whom birthed her, resulting in a heart that grows still with no anticipation to look away.
This is to abide.
It is to know that no vice, no pleasure, no love will ever feel as much as home as it does in His presence.
To have no plan B or C if He's not in it.
To say as Peter did, and I paraphrase, "Where else we bout to go?" (John:6:68)
So abide, beloved.
Cry the tear, read the Word, pray without ceasing.
And if you end up wandering (as I've done countless times), come back again, lay down in the green pastures he's allotted....and this time, abide.
Don't know if you're abiding?
You know you're abiding when you're obeying.
So today (not tomorrow and not in view of yesterday)... feed your Spirit, crucify your flesh, and choose to obey and entrust Him with the rest. He will bear the fruit.
John 15: 4-11
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you[a] will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.