Nourishment

It started with Clint; then Seth; then Jude; then me. That nasty cold virus took us all down. I love nutrition and keeping my little family healthy is important to me. Hearing us all cough and sniffle is not fun. As soon as Clint got sick, I started to increase vitamin C, elderberry, and echinacea in our diets. Although I could not keep my family germ-free, I was able to nourish them.

The night after Jude got sick, he woke up every 30 minutes to an hour. On top of not being able to breath, he was also cutting four teeth. I was exhausted, and battling the same cold, but at 3:45am, as he looked up at me from his nursing pillow, my sleepy eyes relaxed. He was too little to take extra vitamin C, but through me, I was able to nourish him.

Physical Nourishment

Every day, as I clean my home, I am nourishing my household. I know we just got over a rampant cold, but we (thankfully) do not sick very often. Is my home always dust free? Not at all. We are in the middle of a bathroom remodel project. There is dust everywhere. Is my home clutter free? Not at all. I have a preschooler and a baby. But, my home is clean. It is a place where my family can thrive.

As I cook food for my family, I am nourishing them. We taught Seth the Lord’s Prayer. At every meal, he says, “Give us today our essential food.” Though my family has had hardships, God has always blessed us with our essential food. I am thankful for all of the fresh foods that I am able to put together for my family. Do Clint and Seth occasionally go out together for chicken strips or pizza? Yes! And it still nourishes them, physically and emotionally.

The way that God has designed my body, I am able to nourish Jude perfectly. He is a growing, healthy, happy baby. This will never cease to amaze me. Nursing him, not only gives him calories, it also gives him antibodies (which helped him get over our cold). It gives him emotional nourishment as well. He no longer has a cold, but those four teeth are still pushing on him gums. When he wakes up in the night hurting, he wants his mother’s nourishment. Nothing else can calm him.

Spiritual Nourishment

Nourishing our bodies is important. Even more important, however, is how we nourish our souls. Beginning my day in God’s Word is important. Not only does it nourish me, it trains my children that God’s Word is essential. Seth knows that when I am reading the Bible, he needs to be respectful. He quietly plays or reads. When I am finished, he asks if I can tell him the story that I read. He already has a good grasp on many of the Old Testament stories and New Testament commands of Jesus.

This week, Seth and I started reading Proverbs together. As a four year old, I know that he is not grasping everything I read, but he is learning that God’s Word is the most important thing we can read. He is learning that it is essential to our daily life.

I love to hear Clint tell me and the boys what he has been reading and learning from his personal Bible study. I love when the two of us discuss, in front of our children, hard theological concepts. It nourishes our whole family.

The Responsibility of Nourishment

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:4

The Greek word for “bring them up” means “(1) to provide food, nourish; (2) to bring up from childhood, rear, bring up. It is an imperative, a command of vital importance. Clint and I are to nourish our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. My task as a parent is to bring nourishment to my children. Physical nourishment, emotional nourishment, and most importantly, spiritual nourishment.

Tedd Tripp says in his book, Shepherding a Child’s Heart:

The child is interacting with the living God. He is either worshiping and serving and growing in understanding and the implications of who God is, or he is seeking to make sense of life without a relationship with God.

What a responsibility! Sure, as a parent, I have been tasked with clothing, feeding, and educating my boys. My parental responsibility goes so much deeper than mere physical and emotional nourishment though. I have been given the great responsibility of bringing Seth and Jude up in the Lord, in God’s Word. Not only am I to give them physical milk, but I am to give them spiritual milk. I am to move them from spiritual milk to spiritual solids. Not only am I to teach them how to read and add, but I am to teach them about who God is. I am to instruct them in the ways of the Lord.

This is not an easy task. It is, however, the most precious and important task a parent has: to bring our children up in the discipline of the Lord; to nourish them in the instruction of God.