Heavenly Mothers are Watchful-Day 30

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;" Ephesians 6:18

I spent the early years of my life on a lovely farm in Canada. We five children were free to roam the surrounding fields and woods, and we concocted many wonderful games, everything from constructing a kitty city, which sadly the kittens never seemed to want to live in, to building homes out of hay bales (my adult mind can't figure out how a bunch of kids moved hay bales around to become a house, but I am sure we did it.)

One event marred this idyllic childhood, and sadly it is the same thing that happens to approximately 1 in 10 children.

                                                                                                                                      

When something like this happens to a child, the effects are numerous, it is easy to find statistic after statistic of the trauma that it causes to children, trauma that often carries into adulthood.

Much of the fear that this event caused me has dissolved in the light of Christ's love and grace, but because I know how traumatic this kind of violation is to a child, I am watchful over my own children. 

Part of this watchfulness simply involves praying for their safety and protection. 

Another part of it is following wise guidelines of who I leave my children with, especially those who are too young to safely express themselves or not confident enough to get out of a dangerous situation.

Part of this watchfulness involves using a buddy system.

Part of it is instructing children while they are young about how to protect themselves. 

This is an area of information that I would really like to stay out of. It is dark and painful, even reading about recent events in this area is uncomfortable. Hence, my writing this whole post in, as Megamind would put it, "Code, this is an ugly topic, code."

However, it is an important part of heavenly mothering. Helping your children reach adulthood without the mental scars of having their innocence stolen is very important.

God is good. In my case, before the perpetrator had gone very far, a door clicked and the incident was interrupted. Even with the interruption, I was traumatized, but God protected me from a worse outcome and has been healing the scars ever since. 

Life involves trauma sometimes and we may not be able to avoid all of it, but being aware and watchful of who our children are with, and praying for their safety and protection is an essential part of being a mother.