Assurance

“Teach your children to be brave!” they said. “It will be good for them!” they said.  Besides my courageous middle child’s run in with the scissors that resulted in her full fledged belief that she is a hairdresser (“hide yo’ scissors!” is our new family motto), her adventurous climbing spirit has led her to two head injuries, post-hair cut, and her bravery knows no bounds! On top of that, my youngest has left crawling in the dust and has fully embraced her status as “toddler”. The bumps and bruises are as numerous as my eldest daughter’s meltdowns and questions as she ventures towards kindergarten and is teetering between being one of “the littles” at home and developing into a school-aged kid. As I reflected on the little moments of hurt my children have experienced this week and allowed my mind to wander to all of the possibilities of danger that surround them, I started to pray for the Lord to help me to reconcile my responsibility to protect them with my desire to trust and rest in Him. He brought to mind how I feel when my kids spend the night away from us.  The truth is that I honestly cannot sleep unless I have photo evidence that they made it to bed and are sleeping sans blankets covering their faces. I fully trust their wonderful grandparents who take the best care of them whenever we are away, but there is something about that texted photo that gives me what I need in order to fully rest: assurance. When the Lord brought me to the end of that memory, my heart lit up with the words of a song that I have been singing for as long as I can remember, “Blessed Assurance.” In that moment, as the words played in my mind and heart, I knew that because “Jesus is mine” I can feel assured that no matter what happens, I will always have everything that I need. I do not have to wait for them to be safely asleep before I feel assured, I can rest in Him all day, every day, “Oh what a foretaste of glory divine!”