Divine Lessons by Eliana

Being Eliana's mother is teaching me so  much about God and His relationship with us. I have found these lessons too rich not to share. So here we go:

#1: Love Beyond Words
The first and most powerful lesson I have learned from being Eliana's mother is the incredible amount of love I have for her. All the words in the world will fail to adequately describe how I feel about her. In fact, I didn't even know I was capable of so much love. She calms me and captures me. She has me staring at her while she is sleeping, with a smile on my face. When I am away from her, I can't keep my mind off her, always concerned about her well-being.
I believe that God has given me this great love for her. Why do I think so? I cannot imagine a sinful being like myself capable of such love. But God IS love! Experiencing the love of a mother has given me a unique and new glimpse of God's love for us - not that any of us are capable of love as perfect like His!

#2: Struggles of Learning
Eliana is two months old. She is lifting her head quite well already. She gets frequent tummy time from us to help her improve that skill. Does she like it? Sometimes. But there is always a strained look on her face as she lifts up her head and tries to push herself forward with her balled fists and little feet.
It reminded me instantly of how I often perceive God's lessons: They seem like struggles, difficult times in my life, "valleys" of sorts. Sometimes I am aware of what He may want me to learn, other times I am left in the dark. Often I completely forget that He is in control and may have even orchestrated this phase in my life to teach me valuable lessons.
Enter Eliana! Her (cute) struggling facial expression is reminding me of the purpose behind our earthly struggles: a divine lesson, a gift from our Savior, the author and perfecter of our faith.
Of course there comes a time when Eliana lets out small cries and her face starts to extort into pain or sadness. Then we are quick to pick her up or turn her back around. Because we love her too much to give her more than she can handle. And we know that is true of our heavenly Father as well!

#3: Security in the Relationship
As we are teaching Eliana to self-soothe, a friend reminded us: you want her to be secure not just in your presence but in your relationship.
Immediately, I was reminded of God, how we cannot see Him and due to circumstances or illness sometimes do not feel His presence. But it is my prayer that all of us find security in our relationship with Him and what we know to be true about it: His love, His sacrifice on the cross, His plan for our lives.

With all that being said, please pray for Eliana: that we would love her truly, that she would grow in strength, and trust in our care.

More lessons to come (I'm sure)...