Heart Tending

August 20, 2013

Tending.  What do you think of?  Gardens?  Sheep?  Children?  For me, its children these days, and many, many more to come….days that is.  I tried tending a garden.  The children now call it “the weed patch”.   I like gardening.  When you plant something, it stays where you put it.  Children don’t.  Plants don’t make noise.  Children do….lots of it.  Plants have a fairly predictable growing season.  The only thing predictable about children is their unpredictability.  They are noisy and obnoxious one minute, then sweet and tender the next.  Often they are best friends with each other one day then worst enemies the next.  Gardening requires a limited number of tools and skills.  Children require everything you have, things you couldn’t think to ask for and then some.  From planting to fruit, most plants require a few months at most.  For children, I think it’s a lifetime.   Plants don’t get jealous of each other; children do and can be quite vocal about it. Gardening is seasonal, there is always the off-season when the soil rests.  Childrearing is year round….no rest for anyone.   

I’ve never tried tending sheep.  Tending children many days feels like what I would imagine tending chickens might be like.  In the Bible, and I suppose real life, sheep follow the voice of the their shepherd.  Children do not.  I don’t think chickens do either.  I’ve heard that sheep follow each other, sometimes to foolish places.  Children do too.  Today it was Peter following two of the older ones down the street who were following our disobedient dog.  Thankfully they didn’t get too far.  Sheep are not considered the brightest creatures.  Sometimes, I’m not sure children are either.  In the childhood Bible pictures, sheep neatly and quietly chew on grass and lap water peacefully.  Mealtimes with children are anything but quiet and peaceful.  Did I mention messy?  I don’t think chickens are very quiet, neat or peaceful either. 

Plants and sheep (as well as chickens) were made by God for His glory, but not in His image.  Children are.    Tending to children goes far beyond meeting physical needs and raising them to be well-adjusted, responsible members of society (as if that weren’t difficult enough).  What really needs tending in children (and Mommies and Daddies) are their hearts.  So, we don’t tell them not to yell, hit, lie, tattle, take, or sass because those behaviors are socially unacceptable or even displeasing to God, although they are.  We stop and address the yelling, hitting, lying, tattling, taking and sassing because those things reveal a heart that doesn’t believe the gospel.  Those abhorrent behaviors are just symptoms of hearts that need Jesus in deep, daily, real ways.  So that is the real work God has given mommies and daddies:  heart tending.  It requires much more time, effort and energy than gardening and is far less measurable than tending sheep.  It is where the gospel should be flowing freely among very needy people.  We just need Jesus.  We all do, but children, especially lots of them together, are really good at helping us see our neediness and theirs.  Jesus is a really patient Savior to both unruly children and their parents, and  His mercy towards us all never runs out!  So in that reality I will rest tonight, because the chickens…uh children will rise early.  J