One morning I got up and walking down the hall, I passed the empty beds that come with an empty nest. I thought about how hard it was to keep the children in them when they were little. I understand the frustrations and anger that comes with putting children to bed over and over again each night.
I asked myself a question that had been bothering me for a couple of days. If I was unable to succeed in keeping my children in their beds back then, how on earth could I be of encouragement to younger mothers now?
A few more steps down the hall and God brought back a memory from a different time and place.
I was working at a University College. I was the only person in the office during a regular residential school intake. The queue at the counter extended out the door and down the walkway, the phone was ringing every couple of minutes. To say I was busy was an understatement.
What I remembered clearly was that each time I had to leave the counter and walk to the desk to answer the phone I would send up an urgent prayer to God asking Him to help me to answer the phone politely. It would have been very easy for me to snap at whoever was on the phone because it was continuously interrupting my counter work. However, I was also aware that the callers had no idea what was happening in my office. They could not understand that I was on my own nor could they see how many students I had standing outside waiting to be booked into their accommodation. I remember telling my father later that I used the Telephone to Glory constantly before picking up the handset.
How could this memory encourage others?
While we are very aware that God gives us the responsibility of teaching our children, we sometimes forget that God also enables our children to teach us so much. We learn about being loved unconditionally and to love unconditionally. We are taught patience, determination and faith through these little people in our lives.
Like those on the end of the telephone line could not see what was going on in my office, children only have a limited understanding of what is going on in the world that they live in. They cannot understand that their futures will require them to obey rules and regulations and that by doing as they are told now is equipping them for their adult lives.
However, as adults we also have access to that Telephone to Glory and each time we pick up a child and put them back to bed we have the privilege of being able to use it to save us from loosing sight of why God has given us the gift of our children.
Was I faithful in doing this myself, no, but I pray that others might be more faithful than I was?