Here's a thought which occurred to me this morning as I stopped myself from rebuking James when I saw the glee-ful look in his eye.....
I wonder what it must be like to grow up without having 'unlawful' feelings of guilt imposed on one by grown-ups. To be able to pull of a 10" length of sellotape with a view to slapping it on to a 'paper lantern' in which one takes creative pride, without having the wind knocked from our sails by the blast of a disapproving adult regarding the cost of the said sellotape. What a priviledge to be a parent in a position of encouraging the creative flair without condemning the exploration of the materials at hand or the 'unproffessional' and evidently less-than-perfect fruit of such labours - which will probably end up in the bin, forgotten, by the end of the day....
Happy children are those who know that when they TRY to do good they will be pleasing - not because their inexact produce is anything other than inexact but because it was a working-out of that aspect of the image of God, which is in all of us, the exercise of which, if practised, can bring not only to ourselves, but to others and even to our Mighty Creator, an enrichment which money can't buy.
I've been pondering 'and Jesus grew in favour with both God and man' - now why should the Creator of all things bother to consider the 'favour' of man???!! It gives me confidence that my faultering efforts, at being a 'good' mother, might not be despised but smiled upon and I KNOW that they will be accepted as perfect (wonder of wonders!) through the blood of my Beloved.