Today, Joel, Marshall and Sam came downstairs as I was beginning to read Ann Lamott’s Small Victories. Marshall said, “I think God is finally having influence in our lives.” Then Marshall hugged Sam and said, “I really, really love you, Sam!”
Marshall then said to me, “I just love his babyness, how cute he is and how adorable.”
I put my arm around him and said, “That’s how I feel about you, too,” and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
This is the beautiful way we started our day. But it really began earlier when I lay next to Marshall as he woke up, and cuddled with him, then offered apple pie for breakfast, and reading time, like when Marshall was an only child. He has missed the way our days began. But with Joel having May school behind him, and only an afternoon class left, we can do morning cuddling again.
So often, Mother God is influencing me, to do more mothering at the needed moment. Meanwhile, I am hard at work praying for everyone else to change.
But the catalyst for family change is often in me—to forgive, to be gentler, to stop arguing, to pay attention. All that is do-able in the power of Mother-Holy-Spirit, who really does love me, and our family.
Doing hard things isn’t so hard when I already know I’m in the safe harbor of Mother God, who delights in our happiness. And small victories–like brother loving brother–really aren’t so small.