In My Arms

She's about to go to bed and she looks up at me and says, "I sleep in your bed tonight.  K?  That a great idea, mommy?"  I laugh for the question that sounds more like a statement & because this is coming from a little girl who has never once in her 3 years of life ever chosen to sleep with us.  She usually wants her bed, her room, and no one else in it.  So, since Steve was in the bush & I really didn't want to say "no" to those big blue eyes...I end up laying there with her in my arms and her head on my chest.

In my arms, I run my fingers through her hair and my eyes fill up with gratefulness, with dreams, with love, and with a heart full of desire to be the greatest mom I can be to her.  I lay there thinking of everything I want her to know, to believe, & to be confident of...
Who she is in Christ
That His love is unconditional
Her amazing beauty that will have more to do with her heart than her outward appearance
That my love for her does not depend on what she does or doesn't do
and that is only the beginning.

In my arms, I whisper prayers against her hair that tickles my neck...
that she understands her need for His salvation at an early age, that she has a passionate love relationship with Him that only deepens as she grows older, that she will question her faith again and again until she knows firmly what she believes all on her own, that He will be glorified through her life at all ages, that He won't let this world hurt her...all the while knowing that evil/pain/tribulations are all apart of this place that is currently our home, and that her grateful heart will never stop being grateful for each & every gift - the beautiful and the ugly beautiful ones.

In my arms, I hope..
that her unbridled laughter will always be as loud & carefree as it was tonight when she practiced her princess twirls, that her eyes keep the gleam & twinkle they have when she is using her imagination, that she continues to sing just as passionately to the Lord the more she knows Him & the closer they grow, that her compassionate heart isn't jaded by the world but used to glorify her Creator, that her boundless energy is used to bring Life to those who need it, that her love from her daddy & me continues but that she quickly starts to understand that we will never be everything she needs, and that she always wants to play in the rain as much as she loves to right now.

In my arms, I realize that I desperately want her to ask me if it's okay for her to sleep with me again, very soon.