Life with small children can feel like you’re on a merry-go-round; the people in your immediate circle are in focus, but everything on the periphery is a little blurry. Routines spin us in and out of the passing days.
You remark to your spouse that you haven’t connected with those friends for, um, well, I guess it’s been over a year?!
Or, When did you last feed Cub? I don’t remember. I thought you fed Cub…
And so on. Or maybe this is just at my house.
Merry-go-rounds can be exhilarating. And exhausting.
In the midst of what often feels like a blur, I’m grateful for moments when my heart really tunes in to the beauty and sweetness of this early childhood season. At totally random times, the blessing and the wonder of motherhood come into sudden, sharp focus, compelling me to take a mental snapshot.
Blurry, blurry, blurry… then BAM: a crystal clear moment that I want to remember in vivid detail and revisit for eternity.
The smell of his freshly washed hair. His laughter, sweet and pure like honey. The outline of his face in profile. Innocent questions and hilarious quotes that you swear you’ll never forget—but you have a week later.
My brain and soul breathlessly repeat in unison, “Remember this! Remember this! Remember this forever!”
Jim Croce sang about catching time in a bottle. I’m right there with you, Jim.
We try to capture the details and document the memories—but gosh darn it, we’re on a merry-go-round! It’s hard to stop and savor when you’re on a ride like this. Truthfully, all the iPhone photos in the world will never do justice to this miraculous life unfolding before my eyes.
Now let’s be clear: not every moment is so precious. As I carried my kicking child to the car seat this morning and battled to buckle him in as he thrashed about like a wild bronco, I thought about writing this post and had to smirk. Some scenes are not going to make the highlight reel.
May I suggest we take a cue from Mary? This verse, short and simple, is tucked in the Gospel of Luke, written about Mary after the birth of Jesus.
“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” – Luke 2:19
God didn’t have to include this intimate anecdote about Mary’s heart at this point in the story. Goodness knows there was a lot of other news to report, what, with the birth of the Savior of the World and all. But He did. And I love Him for it.
Because it is something I need to hear. It’s something I can relate to and apply as a mother of a little one.
“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
On a merry-go-round, it’s easy to miss things. Even treasure.
God doesn’t want us to miss out on the delights of this once-in-a-lifetime season. And yet, I am convinced that we miss a lot of treasure because we’re going, going, gone on a trajectory of busy-ness and blur.
This passage encourages us, like Mary, to dwell on the details of our days. To stop and meditate on the little moments that make life so rich. To make gratitude a regular, intentional practice. To make pondering a priority, reflection a requirement.
Tonight, after you put your child to bed, you have a choice. You can get sucked into social media or your favorite show and then be shocked when it’s 11 o’clock and you haven’t gotten anything done—OR you can stop, settle into a comfortable spot by yourself, breathe deeply and recount the notable joys of the day. How many gifts can you pinpoint in the last 24 hours? What moments of wonder might you otherwise have missed?
For just five minutes, consciously slow down the spin cycle with this exercise in gratitude. It will be so worth it: when we give God gratitude, peace and joy follow.
Ladies, the blur isn’t a foregone conclusion—some inevitable reality of modern motherhood. We can choose to bring this crazy ride into clear focus. We can choose to take time to “treasure up.”
Sarah Weller 