Every spring my garden squirrel arrives with a new baby!
As moms, we learn deference early. Self takes a back seat to dedicated loving service! We exchange our right to eat and sleep for the permanent joy of our child’s well-being. Refusing to show deference is saying, “My momentary interests are more important than your eternal welfare!” We quickly discover the conflict with time on our phone, social media and any other interruption. All are secondary to the immediate needs of our impatient baby or waiting child.
This spring (this week!), I received exciting news that my beautiful granddaughter, Catherine, is having my first great-grandchild. I am going to be a Great-Grandma! My grandchildren are magic, so I cannot imagine the adventure coming in this new, approaching joy. For sure, I can anticipate newborn opportunities to deepen my understanding of deference living.
Deference is leading the way as a “stepping -stone”, showing the true meaning of self-denial for the benefitof this new little part of my legacy. It is protecting others in situations that would weaken or offend them. We look at our life and responsibility differently, when a baby comes along. We quickly learn that the conscience of a child is incredibly sensitive. They read us like a book and there is no fooling them.
Compromise is indulging in a pleasure that may bring a moment of enjoyment but a lifetime of damage to others. We are to lead the way…a stepping-stone…making personal sacrifices to help this new one become successful…putting off words, attitudes, habits, or actions that would cause our child to stumble. We choose to defer for their benefit where it will benefit them and the cause of Christ.
We are warned to “be careful that the exercise of our rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak” and in this case, the innocent! (I Cor. 8: 9) We have a responsibility to look beyond what we know to be right or wrong and examine how the exercise of freedom might influence our “babes-in-arms”.
Motherhood, grand-motherhood and great grand-motherhood come with great privilege and colossal responsibility. “Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 18: 7-10)
Are you, currently, a “stepping-stone” or a “stumbling block”?
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
