What is God's ideal for marriage?
And the kids answer with:
One man for one woman for life.
Which leads me to this morning's conversation with my 4yo.
She was looking at a picture of her Nana (John's mom who passed away from cancer in 2005), and the questions began.Where did this picture come from? Did Papa take this picture? Was Papa married to Nana?
And this is where it got interesting. I explained to her that yes, Papa and Nana were married. And they had 3 kids. Daddy, Uncle A, and Uncle S. After just a split seconds thought, she asks, "So boys can be married to 2 girls?.. cause Papa is married to MeMe now."
And this is where "that saying" she knows so well came in handy and made what could have been a difficult conversation with a 4yo, much easier.
Well Nat, what is God's ideal for marriage?
"One man, for one woman for life."
Right, and since Nana's life here on earth is over, that means what?
"ohhhh, so he could marry MeMe"
Yes, and aren't we glad he did! (Cause we sure love our MeMe) :)
I really didn't expect to have these kind of conversations already, but as I stumble through this most important job as a parent I'm reminded of a couple of things.
We must intentionally teach. A lot of times we don't deal with the difficult things until they arise. So we end up doing reactive parenting rather than proactive parenting. But if we teach them Biblical principles early on, it makes things much easier when harder questions or situations arise. It's true, kids learn some things by accident just based on the situation or happenstance. But it is my prayer that I take every opportunity to instill the things of God into my children.
And speaking of opportunity..
Teach your children of God diligently. When you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you go to bed, and when you rise up. (Duet.6:7)
which seems to translate into ALL THE TIME. It's a tall order. And I don't claim to get it right all the time (or even half the time for that matter!) but it is my duty as a mother. My number one priority to my children.
Their souls depend on it.
