Words of Wisdom

There are many times that I look at our children and just want to tell them everything all at once. I want to tell them they are "fearfully and wonderfully made." I want to tell them that God has great plans for their life and so they should trust Him and not stray from the path He has laid out for them. I want to tell them that people can be very mean, but that doesn't make them right. They should never allow people to make them feel less valuable than they really are. I want to tell them so much! But so many times I can't.

I can't have a 90 minute discussion with most of our children. Take our two year old, for example, I am blessed if I can get a 2 minute discussion in with him. Our six year old is barely sitting still long enough for us to snuggle and chat for 20 minutes. Even our 13 year old needs to be "in the mood" to have a long quality conversation. Sometimes I worry that I haven't shared all that I feel God is leading me to tell them, and they are growing so fast.

Well, many years ago I started a journal for each child. I try to write in them once every couple of months. I write whatever Bible verse is on my heart that day. I write the characteristics I see them developing as they grow. I write about a hard situation they faced recently and how I hope they will consider handling those situations in the future. I write about all the things I hope they will never question as they grow up, all the things I want to tell them in a long 90 minute chat but never get the chance.

We also use the books as a place for our family and friends to write their favorite verses or words of advice. It has been wonderful. Not only are our children going to receive a book filled with the words I have been praying about for their lives, but they are also getting a book filled with the wisdom and advice of their family and friends.

I know that our children will face some very tough times in their teens and twenties. They will most likely not want to come to me for advice. They may not even want to tell anyone in our family what they are struggling with. My prayer is that the words in these books will guide them through even their toughest days. That even though they may not want to ask my opinion, they can turn the pages and hear my voice in their life and know that I and many others love them and care about them deeply.

Our oldest child will be reaching a great milestone in the next month. As part of our celebration, we will be giving her the book written for her. I am very excited to see how the years of wisdom from so many faithful people will feed into her future.

I want to encourage you to write to your children. You may not want to start a journal, or write more than one or two letters, and that is perfectly fine. However, please take the time to write them at least once. Tell them how amazing they are, how much you love them and how much Jesus cares for them and their future. Tell them some of your favorite Bible verses and why they impact you so much. Tell them why your faith is so important and why you want them to develop their own faith. Tell them whatever is on your heart.

I pray that you and I are around to see our children grow to be grandparents, but if God has other plans, we know that our children will have hand written letters. Letters from us that will be a continual reminder to them of their worth and what an awesome blessing they are in our lives. Our days our short, may the Words of Wisdom that God leads us to write to our children sustain them even when we are no longer walking on this earth.

I would love to hear what your favorite verses are, or what topics you choose to write to your children about!