This Is Going To Hurt Me More Than It Does You

     That's a big, fat, hairy lie....was the thought I'd have every time my mother said this to me right before she spanked me. How could she even possibly think that this is hurting her worse? 

      My mother and I had the usual mother/child rituals. Punishment was one of them. After I had tempted, tested, and tried my mother to the nth degree. And after she had told my sister and I for the 100th time to stop torturing one another, she would then head out the back door. When we heard the screen door slam shut, we knew it was all over but the crying. Sitting right beside our back porch was a switch bush. How convenient.

      I have since, as a mother, come to understand the statement, "this is going to hurt me more than it does you." How many times my heart has ached because I had to enforce a punishment. As mothers, we pour our entire lives into our children only to watch them ebb and flow from brilliancy to stupidity in the same hour. Which in turn causes me to ask, "Where did you come from?" Even though I know, I still need to ask...it helps me to decipher whether they are animal, vegetable, or mineral.

     Then I am prompted to ask questions like, "Who raised you?" and ultimately, "Where have the aliens taken my real children?" Then out of exasperation, I concede that I am terrible at this 'mother' thing and if it hadn't been for me, my kids might have been more perfect. Epic fail.

      Yes, all mommies question themselves and their abilities to guide their children from babyhood to independencehood. To prepare our kids for Decision Making 101 and Real Life Sciences is very unnerving and tedious. Do we even know what we are doing?

     I have since learned a long time ago, that, no, on my own, I have absolutely no idea how to get dressed in the morning much less prepare and launch a child into their future. But I know the One that came up with all this novel idea of child-rearing and such.

     Think of God as an archer. In His quiver are many arrows, which are your children. In His hand is a bow, which is the mother and father. He draws an arrow from His quiver, He brings His arms up, bow in one hand, arrow in the other. He places the arrow with the bow, aims the arrow at the target and using the assistance of the bow (parents) He shoots the arrow (child) into their future as they hit their mark, their target, their destiny, they are firmly in their place that they were sent.

     I know my random stupidity has hurt God. And though I believe that God does NOT give you cancer and causes you to have car wrecks to teach you something, no more than I would stand my child out in a busy highway to teach them that traffic is dangerous, I know that my dimwittedness has caused the pendulum of repercussions to swing my way. You see, He has law and He has an order and divine physics are in motion for us all to hit our marks. As precise as the Archer is, we, His children can completely and stupidly get in the way for Him to stand and shoot us to our destiny. Thus, hurting Him more than it hurts us.

       Wouldn't it hurt you, mother, to stand and watch your own child do the same? Because you know the pendulum is swinging and you'll have to stand there and let the cause take effect. God loves you so much that He will stand there and let you do what you've made up in your mind to do and will also love you through the direct hit you take because of the results of your decision. Isn't that what we have to do as mommies?

     Moms, take a lesson from your own children. Remember and recount how it feels when your baby rejects your aiming and direction, and all you're trying to do is be the bow in the Archer's mighty hand. It feels the same to God when we reject His aiming and purpose for our lives. This Mother's Day why not take a little target practice with your kids.