Littlejohns Turn Their Hearts

Each of our kids is so totally unique and exquisite. Each a snowflake. I remember when Julia was born a sweet, southern-bell, touched my arm and told me how sorry she was that Julia was a girl. This dear woman  was really hoping we would have a boy because Katie was so dominant and Julia would never live up to the standard Katie set. All this non-southern bell Mama could think was, "bless your heart!" (This is code in southern-ese when you want to kill someone :) This women should see my Jules now!!

Anyway, all that to say the personalities, the gifts, the wit, the particularities, the preferences, the desires, the tilts of our children are road maps to their core. An advantage we hold to figuring out who they really are. When Mark and I became parents we were determined to be intentional and purposeful in everything we did. From sleep training to discipline, we wanted to have a plan. From the terrible twos, to the transition into adolescents, we have researched, prayed, sought out advice from wise men and women, and have put all of our weight behind raising our children in the way they should go. Notice the they. Not they universal, but they individually. Each way is different. No two of our children have been parented the exact same way, because no two of our children are the same. Had we tried to parent Julia like we parented Katie we would have broken Julia's strong spirit instead of molding her strong will.

In my reading today I came across this verse which inspired a new Littlejohn Creed.

"He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents" Malachi 4:6

I am totally eating up this verse! I love that concept. I want my heart to be turned toward my children. I want  others to peer into the mundane randomness of our life and walk away and say, "those parent's hearts are turned toward their children!" What a compliment. What a motivation to press on. I don't want to just be the run of the mill mom who clocks in her time card for 18 years and walks away. I want to be deeply connected to my children's hearts. And I want their hearts to be turned to us.

I know from experience this just doesn't happen. Our hearts just don't "turn" to one another naturally. Especially, when you take 6 different hearts and make them live under the same roof. It takes concentrated effort, endless hours, flexible agendas, digging relentlessly to see your child for who they are, expressing expectations, pursuing their heart more than anything else, and more love than you can possible conjure up on your own.

So this being the month of love (gag-o-licious) and the month of hearts (I honestly loathe heart decorations)
I am going to focus on turning my heart to my children!

Here's to turning!
~Sara