Markers, Messes, and Beauty...

If you are a mom then more than likely you will understand what I mean by the title of this post and the web address for my blog.

Markers, Messes and Beauty... As a mom of three kids I many times a day find myself thinking, I just need a moment, just one moment, of silence. Well, if you are a parent then you know that 99% of the time that does not happen but when it does happen, what is my first thought? "Oh no. It is too quiet. What are they doing?" Well, here is how the next few minutes go.

I walk down the hallway, inspecting each room as I go, finally I find the kids in the playroom or one of their bedrooms coloring on the walls. I say their names and they turn around and look at me with their eyes wide open like deer in the headlights, then at each other, then at me again. I ask, "What are you doing?" (You ever wonder why we ask the obvious questions? Haha! However, it is funny to hear the responses we get at times. Depending on the kids' moods I may get a straight answer and I may not. My 3 year old daughter in particular is very witty and too smart for her own good, so I never know what she will say. My son however usually gives me a straight answer.) They reply, "Coloring on the walls." Of course, Mom is not very happy about their actions but at the same time when I look back on those incidents did I ever wonder what was going on in their heads when they started their masterpiece? They have this giant canvas on which to create and so they do. They begin to create what could be looked at as maybe even a masterpiece in the making...

Of course I scrub the walls clean and give them "appropriate canvas paper" but then, in their words, they always reply, "this isn't bigger enough".

Just like the kids' "art", our lives and their lives are masterpieces in the making and the scary thing is, I as a mom have a huge influence on the outcome of the finished work.

Proverbs 22:6, "Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it."
Ephesians 2:10, "For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."