Multitude Mondays: Why Moms are Prone to Blindness

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 When I first laid eyes on my newborn son, I didn’t know that I’d be prone to blindness.

As I lay ravished by awe in that hospital bed, overwhelmed at the sight of his tiny fingers and toes, I never dreamed that one day I’d have to fight to see him clearly.
 
When I lost myself in his baby blues and felt weak in the knees at the wonder of it all, I didn’t realize how quickly miracles could grow muddy. 

I had no idea that the greatest challenge of motherhood wouldn’t be figuring out how to grow a boy into a man; but learning how to keep his mama’s eyes from growing dim.
 
I just didn’t know how difficult it would be to live near-sighted; didn’t realize how easy it would be to miss the treasure right beneath my feet.

“Satan is an agent of familiarity…” Max Lucado writes in God Came Near.  “His goal is nothing less than to take what is most precious to us and make it appear common.”
 
There’s no affliction that steals our vision more quickly than the curse of the common life. 
And no disease that hardens our hearts like the dimming of our eyes. 

 
When all I can see in the priceless moments of my day is the spelling words that need to be mastered and the laundry piled high and the dirty dishes cluttering the counter, then I am at risk of becoming blind.  When the woman staring back at me in the mirror is obsessed with the black circles beneath her eyes and the extra wrinkles cropping up on her forehead and the bonus roll of stomach skin left from the stretch and pull of five pregnancies, then my vision is growing blurred.

And if  I can no longer see the gleam in my daughter’s eyes as she tells me the story she’s dreaming up, no longer notice the tenderness that seeps from my little ones as they take each other’s hands and walk in sync across the yard, then I am surrendering to the enemy’s battle plan.

When I cease to marvel at the way my boy is transforming daily into a man; fail to notice how those hands that used to tug me into the backyard for another game of soccer now lift and twirl little sister in the air like she’s a wisp of dandelion dust, then I am losing my eyes of faith. 

If I view the familiar through my own impaired vision, I fall prey to the lie that my life is ordinary.  And the enemy celebrates my disillusion.

I’m tired of living blind.  There is nothing common about ordinary life except for our all-too common  failure to see it as precious. 


Today, I will celebrate the familiar. 

Today, I will count to see.  I will peer through the lens of praise, and notice how my ordinary laundry-folding, grocery-getting, tantrum-taming life shimmers with an extraordinary sheen of  grace.
 
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. -Romans 12:1, The Message


Counting to see…

1412. Yellow corn piled high in a bright red wagon.

1413. My big boy bending low to play Hotwheels with his little brother.. “This is how I used to do it….”

1414. Combines dotting the fields— the hope of harvest.

1415. Parents who step in so we can step out for dinner, just the two of us.

1416.  Brunch on Mom’s sunporch with my dearest friends.

1417. Unfulfilled dreams surrendered to God… who knows what will grow when I leave those buried in His heart?

1418. Reading the same book AGAIN to Maggie.. her laughter ringing loud in all the right places 🙂

1419. Sitting on the deck on a cool autumn evening with friends who have shared two decades with us… all eleven of our kids crammed in laps or at the picnic table… who would have dreamed how our lives would unfold? All this grace as we share the journey!

1420. Holding her while she cries over the lost kitty- “Mom, my heart hurts, but I know Jesus can heal it….”

Linking again in community with Ann and these lovely grace seekers:  
l.l. for on, in, and around mondays
laura for playdates with god, 
and jen for soli deo gloria



 
Alicia

13 Comments

  1. Alicia, you have the most beautiful children! And seeing their mama, it’s no wonder 🙂 beauty from the inside out, too. Opening my eyes to the beauty in the ordinary moments today.

  2. Christina says:

    This is a daily battle for me, to not be distracted by the unimportant but to treasure the everyday moments that make up a life. And this, “If I view the familiar through my own impaired vision, I fall prey to the lie that my life is ordinary.” Thanks for this, Alicia! Beautiful as always:)

  3. Jennifer {Studio JRU} says:

    “There is nothing common about ordinary life except for our all-too common failure to see it as precious.” Oh that is so, so true! Wonderful reminder to me today. Thank you!

  4. “There is nothing common about ordinary life except for our all-too common failure to see it as precious.” amen…like ann says…the remedy is in the retina…blessings as we see with His eyes~

  5. “The curse of common life.” I get this. I want to keep my ability to SEE, too. How we view others–what we see–makes a huge difference in how we treat them.

    Great post.

  6. This really resonated with me, beautiful words. May I not become blind and prey to the enemy. It’s way too easy to look at the ordinary and forget that this is the extraordinary, we are raising our future leaders. And that is no small task!
    That quote by Max Lucado hit the nail on the head!
    Blessings, Alicia, and praying that your vision stays clear.

  7. Love this post! Beautiful. Thanks for visiting me at Doorkeeper. Blessings!

  8. Wow! Beautifully written, and completely true. If we could only keep our eyes focused on Christ… this message is part of my grace-mission. To see motherhood, wife-hood, and just plain ordinary life through new eyes. Realizing that every moment is a gift, until we arrive at the ultimate gift, eternity with Him. Satan is good at his job, sucking us down into the mire of discontent and ugly… but Christ is even better… elevating us with Him, graciously strengthening us to live victoriously, serving Him with each breath, giving thanks in all circumstances.

    Grace For That

  9. We’ll all keep praying like Paul, that the “eyes of our hearts will be opened…”. I can’t imagine what Heaven will be like when we finally see beyond the blur for good!

  10. I, too, pray for eyes to see these miracles before me, so often. It is true and real that the daunting tasks of the day can so easily blur our vision. I love your words here.

  11. There are times when I have to ask to go a vision check-up with God – then one time I asked him to let me see my sons as he sees them – because sometimes in the muddiness of growing up, it’s hard to see that. Beautiful post! Handsome boy to man – raising sons isn’t for the faint-hearted!

  12. sweet! may God continually astound us and open our eyes to all with which He’s surrounded us.

    i’d die for a red wagon piled high with corn… sweet corn and corn boils are two things i miss greatly when fall rolls around and i’m not in the states.

    glad we’re neighbors at ann’s today. i’ve enjoyed visiting your place.

    blessings!

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