Mother's Day Reflections

My beloved treasures

Having 两个‘好’字 (two boys and two girls) is the best Mother's Day gift I can ever ask for. It is my vision come true! 

It may be tiring and challenging. There may be days when it seems almost impossible to be a good mother with my body growing weary and my patience running thin. I may not always do what I know to be good parenting; I may yell, I may call names, I may spank out of anger and end up apologising to my children and asking them to pray with me. I can only ask God for grace and new mercies every single day.

Yet, I'm honestly thankful to be the one to bring up my children. I absolutely love the way they play together. I marvel at their ingenious creativity. I adore their hugs and kisses and am constantly surprised by their little acts of affection and kindness to me. I enjoy playing all sorts of games with them and look forward to rough-housing with them on my king-size bed at the end of the day after our bathtime. My heart is warmed when they are contrite after wrong-doing and learn from their mistakes. I rejoice with them as they discover new things and I see the sparkle of understanding in their eyes. I am encouraged as they gradually learn to do things for themselves and become responsible in completing their chores or helping out around the house.

I have dreams for them. I wish for them to know God intimately and walk faithfully with Him. I want to see them being missionaries in wherever God has called them to. I pray for them to be men and women of integrity, purity and passion. It doesn't matter to me if they 'succeed' in the eyes of the world for as long as they follow the Lord, they'll have the greatest adventure of their lives.

In the current life-stage of having 4 children under 6 years of age, I find my expectations becoming modest. On Mother's day, while most other families are queueing up to eat at restaurants, I was extremely pleased and contented to eat at a deserted Yakitori cum Oden snack stall and having the cosy little place to ourselves. I was happy that the children ate well and I could nurse Joram in relative privacy at a corner seat. My spirit was at peace as I shopped at Daizo for household things with the baby in the sling while Joshua stayed with the older children at the playground. Small things in life make me glad.

I seek to treasure every moment I have with my precious ones for time will fly by very quickly. In a blink of an eye, there will be no more mouths to be fed at meal times, no more diapers to be changed and no more little hands to hold when I cross the road. I want to love my children as much as I can before they start having other loves in their lives.

I wanna pat little brother!

Me too! See... he is not crying anymore.