The Greatest Part of Mother's Day!

Living overseas and being a parent can bring many challenges!  Trying to get your children to learn a new language when they are playing with friends and not hitting with sticks or throwing rocks when they do not understand the other children for example.  Trying to teach your children that they cannot just do or have whatever they want when the culture says it is ok for small children or for children who are "special" like yours are.  Trying to get your children to play with the children rather than the animals because the animals are still such a novelty.  Teaching your children to just eat with their right hand and not their left, because the left hand is "unclean".  Teaching your children not to drink the faucet water because it is unhealthy and will make them sick and to treat them for heat rashes when the heat seems unending. Teaching them to just play rather than play according to their imaginations because often their imaginations just do not translate well. 

But the greatest part of my mother's day was also something that I would only have the pleasure of experiencing because of where we live.  We meet for worship each Sunday with the others on our team, which is another couple and two singles.  One of the greatest joys of being a parent is watching one's children worship and contribute to the worship of others, which often does not happen in the states. 

Mariama loves praise and prayer time.  She is great at singing and wants to make sure everyone gets involved, which is one of those times that her leader personality comes out in a good way.  She likes to ask each  person in the group if they have a song they would like to sing, so that no one feels left out or does not miss out on the opportunity to share.  She does have to be kept focused though, otherwise she will run away with the praise time.  She would have us sing for a full hour if she could.  She also is great about sharing prayer requests when it is time to share them.  She is especially good about remembering prayer requests that others have shared, much longer than most of us do.  She can be rather simple in her thoughts or repetitive, but she is only 4.  One of her praises yesterday was that we get to tell others about Jesus.  Now for her that means she has to show any one who comes into the house her bear that sings "Jesus loves me", but that is what she sees as her contribution.  Oh, if it were only that simple!!

Then William is our teacher/ preacher type, more quiet and reflective than Mariama but desiring to share what is on his heart.  William loves to share what he has read from his devotional or Bible or whatever other book about the Bible that he has.  He gets so excited about sharing that it is hard to get him to wait until the time to share scripture.  Yesterday, he did not just read the devotional and lead us in repeating the Bible verse and the prayer, but he even started it out by tying it to something from personal experience.  The devotional started out talking about the children being sad because a bird died and he tied it to the fact that our househelper's dad had died, a long time ago, but still a person close to him and not just a story in the devotional.  He often will also lead in singing a hymn, and it may not be one he knows the tune to but he likes the words.  His favorite as of late has been "Holy, Holy, Holy" but he is not bound to it alone.   

God has blessed me with two precious children, so very different from one another in their gifts and talents and personalities, but both so very aware of who He is and why we are here.  Often the things about them that cause me the most challenge at other times are the very things that are used to bless me when it comes to worship.   William has come to a personal relationship with Jesus, but Mariama has not as of yet, though it seems often that she is quite close.  I am so looking forward to seeing what this next precious gift that God is giving us will be like and how she will glorify the Father at even a young age.  I am so blessed to be their mom and pray that I teach them even half of what they teach me each and every day.