When you see dirt on their face…
July 29 2021
If you have children, particularly if you have small children, you are, possibly, tired because small children are “labor intensive”. We must help them use the bathroom, wash their hands, put on clothes and eat healthy meals, and these things get repeated several times daily. We are also trying to teach them about good, about kindness and about truth, without causing them fear or handing out punishments too often, which can be quite a challenge.
After raising five children, I have come to the conclusion that there is one simple idea that we can cherish daily in our thinking that can help us ENJOY the “labor intensive” part of having a family. This idea is to remind ourselves that each child is a very unique and individual “creation” of God and that we have been given the once in a lifetime gift of helping each child be an individual and unlock their purpose and potential. Children, I have discovered, are not here to be taught, so much as they are here to represent the boundless spiritual “ideas” God puts into our experience. Children, when seen as the answer to prayers, can enrich our lives when we encourage, water and give light to “evidence” in our children, of growth, love, industry and intelligence, the same way we would look for evidence of growth in a cherished seedling in our garden.
If we have a strategy to handle “frustration and anger” when dealing with innocent children, then we will also have a strategy in dealing with people in the world who anger and frustrate us, because all mankind are “innocent children of God”. I believe our strategy can be to “see a child of God” instead of seeing bad behavior, or seeing disobedience, or seeing dishonesty. When we can find even the tiniest thing in a child that shows evidence of good, or truth, or kindness, we can help that child recognize these qualities within and help these qualities grow.
As a baby, I had been put down to nap in a crib with roller wheels, in a small room with wooden floors. My mother told me that my crib was against one wall by the door, and the window with a plant on the windowsill was on the other side of the room. My mom said that she thought I was asleep because I was being very quiet but when she went to check on me, I was not asleep. Apparently I had figured out that if I bounced in my crib, it would move, and I “bounced” the crib all the way across the floor to the window at which point I pulled the plant from the window into the crib and appeared to have “sampled” it. I am sure my mom was distressed initially because my clean outfit, and clean crib and clean room was now covered with dirt.
But how she handled it was not to be frustrated or angry, but to laugh and call my dad who snapped the picture. It is one of my favorite pictures of childhood, because I believe it is evidence of how my parents chose to see me as a “child of God” instead of as an annoying child who cannot be trusted to take a nap without supervision. Growing up I was always told how “creative” “sensitive” and “thoughtful” I was. I remember spending a lot of time daydreaming and creating stories in my head, and was told I had a wonderful “imagination”.
The world presents us with a constantly changing visual “picture” and using our clever imaginations to transform what we perceive, when the picture is old, dark or destructive, to something good, is a beautiful talent that helps us grow “God-ward”. Good is always there, always able to be perceived, even when it does not seem visible. We can nurture that “view” in ourselves and in any children in our care.
Also I am reminded that “man does not live by bread alone” (and apparently not by plants either) when seeing the picture of me in my crib with dirt and no plant. When Jesus healed, he often said “give them meat”. I feel sure that my parents knew better after that day when I bounced my crib, to not leave me in a mostly empty room with just a plant. (unless they did not value the plant) A cherished seedling grows best in a garden outside. We do not build a tree-house in a seedling, or attach a swing to a sapling do we? We plant what we BELIEVE will bear good fruit, in seedlings and likewise we plant what we want our children to BELIEVE about themselves, in their thinking, by seeing, in them, the good, the perfect and the pure instead of seeing the dirt, the mistakes, the wrong turns.
I just listened to a lovely lecture where the speaker reminded me of a bible verse “the kingdom of God commeth not with observation”.
It goes on to say that the kingdom of God is within each of us…and I believe that means that we can CHOOSE to SEE or believe in good, or can choose to SEE or believe in the lie called evil, and that “belief” determines our “kingdom” or experience, as opposed to the reverse, where what we SEE determines our belief.
Basically since the kingdom of God commeth not with observation, it is “nothing that can be seen”. As I was looking at this bible verse during my “walk warmup” prior to my run, this song “you ain’t seen nothing yet” came on the radio and made me laugh as I related it to what I had been reading and caught the “play” on words. Perhaps we have not “seen” the “nothing” that is “heaven” YET , if heaven, or spirituality, is determined by perfect thinking focused on good, but we can certainly aspire to “see or perceive” heaven in ourselves and in the people we have in our lives.
“And now I’m feeling better, cuz I found out for sure”… Dirt on their face is not what we are looking at when we can “see the non physical realm that is spirituality”. We see infinite good, and its infinite manifestations, and this view unfolds paradise, which is here now, within each of us.
