This Sweet Language
In this season with small children running through the halls of our house I have been blessed with the gift of getting to be at home with them. I knew I always wanted to be a mom, I just didn’t realize how much I was going to love it. Yes there are plenty of hard moments…but then there are those moments…the ones meant to be quietly treasured, dwelled upon in your heart. In Luke 2:19 Mary has given birth, holding her Jesus in her arms when the shepherds of Bethlehem arrive. This passage of scripture does not describe Mary saying or doing anything. She chose to "treasure up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Mary didn’t need anyone to hear her words…I believe Mary was already engaging in something far deeper than our language can emulate.
One of the many things I love about getting to be a homeschooling mom is the fact that I get to introduce my children to new things such as reading, writing, and why bumble bees aren’t actually evil but rather essential (still trying to convince them of this one…). With the freedom our schedule allots, my kids only have to sit for 1 hour to knock out their academics, but their “time to learn” begins the moment they emerge from their rooms in the morning until they lie back down again in the evening.
We focus on 4 main areas: body, mind, soul and home. I believe as an adult, each of these areas must receive special attention every day, and so I want for my children to be in step with this practice long before they leave our nest. I want for my kids to get to be kids so there is no hard structure around this, keeping it simple, fun and coated in prayer.
For BODY we work to not only practice good hygiene but also eat good foods that truly satisfy, praying before every meal and approaching food with a grateful heart.
For MIND we focus on academics. I pray, aloud, over each of my boys before we begin a lesson. Learning new things is hard, I want for my kids to know God cares for it is He who fashioned the uniqueness of their intellect.
For HOME we care for what God has provided. Leaving spaces better than we found them, being kind to neighbors, and praying over our home when we leave and when we return.
For SOUL we focus on how to nurture our walks with God. We read a devotion together followed by a story from the Bible, then we put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:11-13) and then I pray us into the day, inviting God to fill the space.
At the end of the day my children have prayed aloud a lot, and for them this is normal. It’s not hard or forced upon them because it has become a common practice as they have gotten older. I don’t want my children to pray to impress, I want them to pray so they will understand this sweet language of God.
One day during our soul feeding portion of the day, we were reading our devotional and about to begin the Bible story when one of my sons looked at me and said, “why when I talk to God, He doesn’t talk to me?”
We have all heard this question, be it from another’s lips or in our own hearts. I looked in my little one’s eyes because I needed him to trust me…and I needed my God to help me. In my heart I prayed for an answer, and my dear Savior responded as Luke 12:12 came alive, “For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” He didn’t speak aloud, as I know we would all love to hear. No, He spoke in my heart and filled me with peaceful assurance. And then words I had never used before came out of my mouth in a way my boy could understand, short and simple. These were the words:
“When a baby is born they don’t use words like we do, right? They make sounds and for them they are communicating, but they don’t understand what it means when their mom or dad say ‘hello.’ A baby has its own way of talking and it is not the same as their parents. The mom and dad want to be able to talk with their baby so they keep them close and talk with them a lot so then the baby will learn how to speak their language.
It is the same with God, my love. He is the Father and we are His children, and He wants to talk with us. But if we don’t spend time with Him through prayer and reading His word, then we aren’t practicing His language and sadly won’t be able to hear when He answers. A baby uses sounds to communicate they want food while a parent uses words. We may use words, but our Father in Heaven speaks in a different way…a way we will only understand when we spend time with Him. Does that make sense?”
I held my breath and waited for a series of questions to follow, but none came. He smiled and said “Yep, it does.”
Whether or not the depth of our conversation truly reached him doesn’t matter because it was enough for his heart to hold at his age. And as we finished our Bible time together, I sat with peaceful assurance warming every inch of my being. It may have been a cloudy day…but I was in the sunshine with my children tucked beside me.
I want to understand the sweet language that can exist between me and my Heavenly Father. I want this for my children, for my husband, and I want this for you. I believe that Mary, as she held Jesus in Bethlehem, pondering the moments in her heart, understood. She didn’t need to use words, she was holding her Savior and quietly speaking with her Father while the world was still asleep and the shepherds celebrated.
I believe that many years before Mary, there was another who also understood this sweet language with God. Moses was a man unlike those around him, not because he had some hidden skills or remarkable intellect, but because when God looked at his heart, He liked what He saw enough to get close to Moses.
Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.
Exodus 33: 11 | ESV
Think about it. Up until this point in the Bible, the last man God spoke to in this way was Adam. God would walk with Adam in the garden and converse…then the fall happened and Adam stepped away from God. Moses was not a perfect man, but he moved towards God, and when God weighed this man’s heart to see what was really there, He saw a man who truly wanted to be with Him. Moses had known riches on earth…
He desired the wilderness with God.
When we read the story of Moses or see renditions of it, we see Moses leave a life of luxury for the unknown wilderness…and then he meets his future wife…and then he lives with her family herding sheep and then...God speaks to him through a burning bush. It could easily be missed but from the time Moses left Egypt to the burning bush was roughly 40 years. It would be unwise to overlook this. Moses chose the wilderness and after many years…years we do not know the details of, God speaks and Moses hears Him. I believe a lot happened during those years in the wilderness…a lot of heart matter…a lot of time alone with God…a lot of prayer…a lot of language learning. And when God saw Moses was ready, 40 years later, He chose to speak through a burning bush.
Later they would meet together on a mountain and share many moreconversations and even as Moses grew older, nothing in the Bible indicates that he aged in the same manner as those before him. Rather than Moses showing signs of aging, he actually began glowing. He spent so much time with God, Moses' face glowed…the man had to wear a veil around people because his face was so bright!
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless (or whole) toward him.
2 Chronicles 16:9 | ESV
God has a sweet language to share, but only those who spend time with Him will be able to hear His words. And even if His voice doesn’t grace your ears this side of Heaven, don’t get caught up in if or how you think He will speak to you, chances are He has spoken to you, but were you listening? Were you waiting for a "hello" to reach your ears and missed the whisper in your heart?
They say it is easier to teach a small child a second language than it is an adult... we need to become more like children in this way, so we can learn a new language and while we learn reach for our Father daily just as a baby reaches for their parent.
Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:5-7 | ESV
A baby is born of their parents, but when born cannot understand a word they say, much less speak the way they do. We are made in God’s image, but simply because we are made in His image does not mean we know how to speak as He speaks. So pray without ceasing, read scripture, leave what’s comfortable for the wilderness…your Heavenly Father is waiting to walk beside you.
