Your job is to be a full-time reflection of Jesus, the true light to the world.
Screaming. It’s been my alarm clock for the last three months, and it has no snooze button. I roll over as I try to pull myself out of my rock-hard sleep, fumbling around in the darkness to bring my hungry baby to me. He screams as I struggle to get the bottle to his mouth. And then I hear it: his sisters start to stir in their room as the light from the sunrise peaks over the horizon. I sigh loudly, knowing my day has officially started about three hours of sleep shorter than I’d like.
After five years of teaching in public schools with a snoozable alarm clock, I traded it all in to spend the last three years at home with my babies. My husband, Jesse, and I have three beautiful, amazing children. Our eldest is only three years old, our wild child is one and a half, and like I stated above, our sweet baby boy is just short of three months. We get a lot of “You guys sure have your hands full,” and “I don’t know how you do it.” I assume these are fairly popular comments for the crazy people (gluttons for punishment?) like us who have babies in such close succession.
While some can’t comprehend how we balance our chaotic family dynamic, I believe those who understand the example of Jesus tend to have a better idea. We’ve been given both the perfect example of how to parent through God’s example and the perfect parent’s manual through his Word.
John chapter 1 shines a spotlight on John the Baptist. John was such a bright light in the dark world, so many thought he WAS the light. In John 1:6-8, it explains to the reader the importance of John: he was sent from God, he was a vessel sent so all might believe, and his primary goal was only to be a witness to The Light.
Just like John, we are witnesses to that very same light. We are responsible for our actions and the example we set. In my sleepless mornings, I begin by asking God for patience and energy for my children. When my wild child ‘accidentally’ hurts her baby brother for the third time in ten minutes, I extend the very grace God has given me (and set her up with something fun much farther away from the baby). When I struggle to understand what my eldest needs, I ask God for wisdom.
John’s life’s work was to reflect the light- not to be a preacher, prophet, wild man, or baptizer. In the same way, your work is not to be a teacher, construction worker, manager, or stay-at-home parent. Instead, your job is to be a full-time reflection of Jesus, the true light to the world. What would your life look like if you did that? If you had to assess how well you reflected Jesus on a 1- 10 scale, where would you rate yourself? And how could you bump that number up? How could you be a 10?
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – John 1:12
I pray my children daily see The Light through me. I pray that because of my example, my babies will receive the light and become children of God. And I pray the impact of their lights will be greater than anything I ever could have imagined.
There is nothing better than being a child of God.
