The following post is from one of my favorite people in the world, Jill at Diaper Diaries:
I love Impress Your Kids. It is in my reader, I absolutely adore its author Amanda, and I am committed to raising my kids to know God. But can I be honest with you? Sometimes I read it and it just makes me feel like a failure as a mom.
Now I know that is the last thing on earth Impress Your Kids is meant to do. It is meant to encourage and bless moms who desperately want their children to grow up with a foundation in Christ.
But I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I have done crafts with my kids. Just thinking about doing them gives me hives. I read about all these adorable crafts Amanda does with her kids, and meaningful crafts with deep spiritual lessons no less, and think…. well honestly I think, just shoot me now.
Is it possible to be a great mom and hate doing crafts with them?
Here is the deal as I see it (so you can take that for what it is worth). I have read a decent amount of the Bible nowhere have I found a verse that says “Thou must be crafty.” I know the Proverbs 31 woman sews clothes, but it never talks about her taking egg cartons and turning them into caterpillars to teach her children about the resurrection.
There is so much mommy guilt to go around. Working vs. Stay at Home. Breastfeeding vs. Bottle. Let’s not add crafty vs. hopelessly unable to use glue without losing it. I am pretty sure if it is my job to represent Jesus to my children then crafting is the last thing I should be doing. Nothing brings out my non-Christlikeness like glitter.
So I save the crafts for VBS and Sunday school. Oh and Grandma Day. But we do a ton of singing about Jesus. We do plays and ballets and concerts. We might even do a play acting out a bible story here and there (sans puppets. Puppets are creepy). {editors note: Jill, puppets are NOT creepy!}
But it doesn’t really matter what your thing is. What matters is that we are investing quality time with our children. Spend time looking for teachable moments to point them towards Jesus. Listen when they ask questions about their faith. And most importantly all the crafts, songs and puppets in the world aren’t going to matter if our lives don’t model what we teach them about.
Are we focused on the right thing? Are we focused on the right person? At the end of the day it isn’t remotely about us and how good of a mom we are. We don’t have to be perfect. We don’t have to have all the answers. But our lives should point our kids towards the One that is perfect and the One that is the answer to their every question.
How do YOU point your kids toward God?
Jill is the author of The Diaper Diaries. She has been changing diapers for 6+ years as a stay at home mom of three children. She also has a devoted husband who graciously puts up with this little internet hobby. They all probably wish she would exercise a bit more discretion as she shares their life’s ups, downs and in-betweens with anyone willing to read it. You can (almost always) find her on Twitter @DiaperDiaries.
