You Are Precious, You Are Priceless

A parent’s worst fear is that something will happen to their children. Illness, accidents, abductions and other kinds of harm fill our hearts and our minds.

And it’s not just worrying about our children. A parent can worry about themselves too. That something will happen so that their child has to grow up parent-less.

So many worries. So many fears.

Fear can rule my life if I let it. And it would be so easy to let it. But I have to live instead; in courage and in faith, trusting that my God will take care of my children and that He will take care of me.

I realize that life is not perfect. Not everybody gets to live through it without disease, sickness, accidents, or tragedy befalling them. In fact, very little of us get to go through it without being affected in some way.

But there is so much to be hopeful for. So much to be thankful for. There is still so much that is good.

I am thankful every time my children celebrate a birthday. Every milestone that I get to watch, I am blessed that my children get to reach it, experience it and touch it. And of course, I’m thankful that I get to be a part of it.

I think of the “what if’s.” I try to prepare my children for those possible scenarios and I pray that they will never come to pass. But if they should, then I have to trust my Almighty God that my kids knew the most important things they could know.  I have to trust that they knew how much they were loved and valued. How deeply they brought joy to my life.  And I have to trust that they saw the Lord in my life and that they too, will always seek to have Him a part of theirs.

I have to believe that they knew how precious and how priceless they were to me.

So I tell them. I tell them often. I hug them. I kiss them. I love on them with everything in me. I laugh with them and I enjoy them. I listen.

Time is so short. Every birthday shows me that.  But each year is a blessing.

I don’t know what the future holds. I pray, of course, that it holds many more blessings and joys.  But if it also holds unspeakable pain, then I will carry with me one thing – how great a blessing I was given, to be given children that were so irreplaceable and so beautiful. How lucky was I to be their mom for however long I was allowed to place my arms around them.

May I tell them often, “You are precious, you are priceless”…..  so it is always felt, always known and always carried with them.