This Tuesday, September 13th, we kick off another year of MOPS (Mother’s of Preschoolers). The theme “Starry Eyed, embracing Wonder, Hope and Kindness” reminds me of how easy it is to lose our wonder.
Parenting in the little years can be physically exhausting and drain all the wonder from us – until all were left with is “I wonder when they’ll sleep through the night…I wonder when they’ll stop clinging to me so fiercely so I can drop them off in the nursery or go out on a date or even just walk out of the room…I wonder when…” And we wish away our lives instead of living present in the moment
The call to be starry eyed is to stop losing our joy in the mundane moments during the years of rearing children. Instead, we can embrace moments of wide eyed wonder that happen each and every day, but we have to intentionally stop to look for them or we WILL miss them
When I stopped rushing and started embracing moments of wonder, I began to notice things like moments of laughter, animal tracks in the snow, the beauty of wildflowers on the roadside, a sunset, living shells in the ocean tides, etc.
The last 5 years of my life have been some of the most challenging years. We’ve grieved the untimely death of a parent and parented a child through some scary teenage years. But through it all, God showed up daily, healing my heart, soothing my grief, calming my anxieties and giving me hope for the future- all because I slowed down to embrace wonder.