It was a Monday. It felt like a Monday. The day began with so much potential for accomplishing the things I had written in my daytimer. But a teething 7-month-old who fussed all day long and a 2-year-old who couldn’t keep anything down interfered with my task list for the day.

In the midst of it all, two moments stand out.

We were listening to a children’s song “Jesus is my very best friend.” Mara loves music. She is always trying to sing along as best she can. (She doesn’t always get it. There’s another song called “Little by little, inch by inch. .  .” talking about growing in Christ, and every time she sings, “Inch by little. . .”)  But since she shows so much interest, I’ve started talking to her about the songs we sing. “Jesus is my best friend, Mara!” I said. “Who is your best friend?”

“Ummmm. MOMMY!” she shouted. Then she tilted her head to the side with her sweet melt-your-heart smile. “Mommy, Mara’s best friend!” That really made my day! She may not even understand the concept of a “best friend” yet. But I pray often that God will preserve our relationship and allow us to have a healthy, iron-sharpening-iron mother-daughter friendship as she becomes an adult.

Another interaction today between Mara and me was a bit of a rebuke to my own life. My sister (Aunt Mary) had two job interviews today. She is a physician’s assistant working for a neurosurgeon in Jacksonville, Florida, and she is looking for a new job. When it was time for her interview, I said to Mara, “Let’s pray for Aunt Mary. She’s looking for a job.” So we stopped and prayed.

When we were done, she said, “Pay [pray] Daddy’s job.” Daniel and I have been praying that he would find a new job soon too–so we stopped and prayed “for Daddy’s job.” Then Mara stood up, walked right up to me as I held Micah, and said, “Pay Micah feel better soon.” She took each of his hands in hers and bowed her head, waiting expectantly for me to pray. We prayed for Micah.

I am thankful that my little girl is learning at an early age to thank God for the special joys He gives her and to take every care and concern on her little heart to Him. It was a rebuke to me. Far too often, I “bear” my own burdens, rather than taking them to the Lord. My very best friend, the Creator God, who loves me infinitely and has all power wants me to bring my requests to Him, and He wants to give me His peace! Why is it that I (with my very limited resources and understanding) choose to carry those burdens myself?

In the few moments I spent in God’s Word today (before being interrupted by a hysterically crying toddler who had just thrown up in her crib), the Psalmist’s words spoke to my heart: “Be still in the Lord; wait longingly for Him. . . Trust in the Lord. . . Delight yourself in the Lord. . . Commit your way to the Lord. . . Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing. . . The Lord does not forsake His godly ones. . .the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them . . . because they take refuge in Him.”  (Ps. 37)

I pray that God will write these truths on the table of my heart,that someday others can look at my life and know my very best friend, without even asking, because I delight in Him, wait longingly for Him, take refuge in Him, find strength in Him–and in the deepest part of my heart, trust Him for deliverance from every trial big or small.

Mara and I had a delightful day together. Days like today remind that I wouldn’t trade the privilege of staying at home with my children for anything. She was so much fun!

In the morning I was putting Christmas decorations away, and since she loves to wear hats, she paraded around for awhile wearing the Santa hat. I had to take a picture!

We tried on an outfit Grandma “Bubben” had given her when we visited back in October, and it fits now! So she was super-excited to wear a new purple outfit with her “perkle” shoes. She says, “Call Gamma?” whenever she thinks something merits telling Grandma. So we did. Then I took pictures to show Grandma (Mara in the outfit she gave her), and Mara insists that Mommy get in the picture too. I felt completely unprepared to be photographed, but who can resist when their 2-year-old daughter asks Mommy to come in the picture with her?

Then we tried on a dress that I got for her on eBay last summer. I got it in the hopes of getting a Christmas portrait or a portrait of the two kids together–which never materialized–so she’s never even tried on the dress. When she put it on, I wished all the more that I had taken them for portraits, because she looked adorable in the dress! So we had a little photo session of our own!

Before Daniel came home, I was working in the kitchen, and Mara came in with a cup and a spoon. “Mara make soup,” she said. “RED soup!”

“Red soup?” I repeated. “Is it chili?”

Mara nodded. “BEANS in it,” she said.

“Daddy like it!” she smiled in anticipation.

“Are you making soup for Daddy?”

Mara nodded again, her blue eyes twinkling. And if that wasn’t enough to make Mommy’s heart melt, she said, “Dressed up! before Daddy comes home!”

“You want to get dressed up?”

“Pink dress!” she exclaimed. “Tights!” Wow, she has this whole thing planned out!

She doesn’t actually own a pink dress, but she has a brown dress with pink flowers, which she calls her “pink dress.” I set aside dinner preparations to take her upstairs and get “dressed up” for Daddy! My heart was so touched by her excitment to see Daddy and her desire to do something special for him! It kind of made me want to get dressed up for Daddy too!!

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My second Mara story is not nearly so . . . romantic . . . and needs three preliminary explanations:

* First, when Mara says “Bee-ya?” she means “What’s that?” She has done this for probably 8 months or so by now. We have no idea why. We have just noticed that whenever she doesn’t know what something is or wants to know what something is, she points to it and asks “Bee-ya?”
* Second, she calls nasal congestion “buggers.” (At this point, you are legitimately concerned about where this post is going!)
* Third and finally, she will randomly attach unrelated timeframes to her sentences. For instance, she might say, “Daddy work Friday.” It’s not Friday. It hasn’t been for three days. We aren’t talking about Friday. But she’ll just throw a timeframe out there that she’s heard before. She also references “last year” all the time. Not quite sure why. She just does.

Okay, so here’s the story: I pulled some hamburgers out of the freezer to grill for dinner.

Mara says, “Bee-ya? Bee-ya?”

“Hamburgers!” I said. “We’re going to have them for dinner.”

A look of understanding flashed across her face, as she said, “Mara–hamburgers in her nose last year!”

Wow. I couldn’t help it–I was dying laughing!

I’ve been teaching Mara what to say when she meets people. So now she randomly walks up to me during the day and says, “Hiiiii, Mommy! Nice mee-chew!” [Nice to meet you.]
“Name–Mawa. Two Dib-dub Day!” [Which translated essentially means, ‘My name is Mara, and I turned two on Christmas Day.’]
Then she walks up to Micah. “Hiiiii, Micah! Nice mee-chew . . .” repeating the entire drill. I just laugh.
———
Tonight at dinner, Mara pointed at the back of my pants. “Uh-oh, Mommy! Sticker on back pants!”
Sure enough, I reached back there and pulled off one of Mara’s Hello Kitty stickers that are posted everywhere around the house at this point. If she were just a little older, I might have suspected that she stuck it on me! But she’s too young.
Still Mara smirked at me and shook her head, saying, “Lilly [silly] Mommy!”
I couldn’t resist laughing too!