Making Ripples

Whenever I hear a leadership message I immediately filter it through my mommy brain and ask, How can I translate these leadership principles into my mothering?  

This morning I heard a wise man speak on how to be an influencer of generations. I have to start with the generation that is under my care every day. Yet, right now I as I write I can hear one of them whining downstairs in protest of my instruction to go use the restroom. I hesitate applying what I just learned, If I can’t seem to influence them to potty in time, how can I train them in the eternal weighty things? The four principles the speaker listed seemed so straightforward this morning…and then I came home. :)

Still the charge God has given me is clear and the goal worth giving it my all. My job, as the speaker summed up (and I mommy-translated) is to be a faithful messenger of the love and grace God extends to my children. I’m to train them to live by His safe guidelines for their lives by pointing them continually to His life-giving Words. These are the Words that will make the biggest difference. As a result of routine training over the next 10 - 15 years, hopefully they will grow to be the kind of men that will influence others in these same principles.

As I reflected on the message I asked myself, Am I leading them to You daily? Both directly – through reading and memorizing the Bible together and prayer.  And indirectly – with my actions, attitudes and words?  There’s the rub.  It’s the day in and day out that gets me, where my sin shines the brightest in my impatient tone and begrudging routine service. 

It is an impossible task – to lead them perfectly every moment of every day.  I feel overwhelmed. I can’t do it. I can have a quiet time with them but I can’t hide my sin.  Why would they want to imitate my imperfect faith? But then He asks me, “What if you stopped hiding from your sin and modeled repentance?” It’s humbling, but affective, when I look in their little eyes and give them a full apology for my mistakes in parenting. That’s when I see Him working through my mistakes, turning them into living examples of grace for them to remember.

What if the right attitude and clear eternal goals in the heart of one mom radically changed everything in the lives of three little men? What if they grew up to be influencers in His Kingdom because of the choices I make today?  What if what I’m doing now in my little house within in my neighborhood nestled in my city someday impacts the world?

That is what the speaker on leadership tried to get us to see. That is what he meant when he talked about a ripple in a pond making a bigger impact than a single splash.  I’m here…cleaning dishes, scrubbing toilets, sometimes patiently talking through tantrums and squabbles…but I’m making ripples. If I do it with love and obedience to His Ways, then they will be ripples that imprint His Message on their hearts. Ripples that will go much farther than my two feet will ever travel.  Ripples that just might change the world.