Browsing Tag

Children

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

“Well, God can hear my words…”

Posted on March 10, 2025

Don’t forget to make your guess! Lily’s weight and birth time. Instructions here: https://thecolleyhouse.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=19056&action=edit

And speaking of the babes/ It’s always “out of the mouths of babes”…

We have three with us this weekend, while Hannah is speaking at a ladies day at the good Sandyville church near Parkersburg, WV. When three are here it’s a noise competition and a general knock-down/drag out—not of people, but things. Today, I’m actually taking them to explore a nearby cave. I think the damage today will be under the earth and who will know? I think if Eliza Jane says “I a-uh-dentally” one more time, I’ll…well, I’ll probably grab her up again and tickle her. (Actually, I can no longer pick her up, which makes me very sad! But she is off the charts—both weight and height.)

So, it was 3:53 am and I was about done. I’d already been up with Ezra, who had a bad dream, when Eliza came pitter-pattering to my bedside and cried “I had a bad dweam!” 

I must say here that I didn’t really believe her. I really thought that it was all those other times she’d said that and I had lifted her into my bed and snuggled her back to sleep that had driven her to imagine that her benign dreams were a little bit “bad”; bad enough to come and climb in. I lifted her up and put her between Papa and me. That cast on her right arm is “to be reckoned with” in a double bed with three people! (It is a “violet” cast and she is so proud of it.)

Eliza then whispered “I don’t think you can hear my wuhds.” 

I said, :I don’t need to hear your words. We are not talking. We are going to sleep.” 

Then she softly whispered “Well, God can hear my wuhds.” 

I woke up then, for maybe the first time. “Oh, yes, you go ahead and talk to God. I can hear, too.” 

The she whispered, “Dee-ah God, PWEASE, oh PWEASE, don’t let me have any mow-ah bad, ‘cary dreams. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Well, I was pricked. I had doubted the severity of her dreams. But, I did go right back to sleep (With my arm securing the otherwise unruly cast) in spite of my conscience-ache . 

In the morning, I asked her if she could remember her dream. 

“Oh yes. It was mama and me and somebody else. Mama spilled a bag of cookies and a whole bunch of dogs came and ate dem all up. When dey finished eating dem, dey attacked us.” 

I said “Did they bite you?” 

She said “Dey didn’t get us. We ran and ran and while we runned, I waked up.” 

Lord, Help me to be more trusting of the innocent ones, more sympathetic and comforting in their little trials and more assured that You hear our whispers. And help me to remember that sometimes the innocent ones who need me may be bigger people, too.

Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish (Matthew 18:14).

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Six in the Mix…and Praising!

Posted on August 29, 2024

The most fun news of 2024! I’m a grandmother of six now. One more sweet Colley baby is being formed by our Creator and  Glenn and I are praising and praying for this little one daily. Our baby’s Father hears our pleas to heaven and for heaven, ultimately, for all six of our little grandchildren and for their parents. We are in awe at the profound blessing we have already have been given, but we anticipate cradling this sweet bundle in our arms next March. It will feel really good to have a baby’s tiny fingers around my thumb again. And it will be the norm for all of me to be wrapped around a tiny baby’s finger. (And, as I rock this baby next March, I will rock on back, in my mind,  a few decades, to a nursery in Pulaski, Tennessee, where I rocked his/her daddy in the middle of lots of nights, and it will feel amazingly sweet!..way sweeter than it felt in my twenties–the decade of sleepless nights!)

If you know me at all, you know I’m over the moon. There are some very special children in my life. Ezra, Colleyanna, Maggie, Eliza Jane, Ellis  and sweet baby Colley are at the heart of this group. But some of you who are reading are my “daughters” in a precious spiritual way and your children are mine, too. That’s a big blessing of being in the big family of God.

Layla, Henry, Sasha, Elizabeth and Mel are specifically  in my prayers tonight because of physical struggles. If I try to imagine prayers without the names and plights of babies, I’m hard pressed. I’m so thankful Jesus made it so clear about how much He cares for our little ones. 

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.  Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.  Mark 10:13-16

I pray I will, in all ways, always, do all I can, as time goes by, to put THE good news down deep in the heart of this little one who is OUR good news! I know his/her parents will do just that.  God is so, so good! Just when you think you’ve had a little more than you can patiently take of some grief or problem, God says “See! I am doing a new thing!”

I’m so thankful for the original and ultimate  “new thing” of Isaiah 43:19 that also began with a tiny baby in Judea, and is the answer to all my griefs and problems! I can’t wait for heaven where all the tears are wiped away, all the evil is overcome and “all the things” that burdened are in the distant past of  a world that’ll then be ashes…a melted planet (2 Peter 3:10).  In the meantime, though, there’s a lot happening on the pre-burned-up planet that’s key to getting the people I love to that new place around the throne!

I love you fiercely to eternity, already, sweet baby C-3!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Mama’s K.I.S.S. #73–Teaching Kids to Teach Bible Classes

Posted on July 19, 2024

As you know, if you’ve been reading, for quite some time, I’ve occasionally been running little installments called “Mama’s K.I.S.S.” I know that lots of readers could give many more and far more creative ideas than I can offer, but these installments are just a few tried and true and mostly old-fashioned ideas for putting service hearts in our kids.  This is number 73 of a list of one hundred ways we train our kids to serve. K.I.S.S. is an acronym for “Kids In Service Suggestions”.

I remember well at the age of 15, becoming the teacher for the five-year-olds at the Adamsville church of Christ. I loved getting to teach and felt honored that the elders thought I could “handle that.” Of course the prequel to that was being the daughter of two people who were both actively teaching in the program and being called on to prepare materials and to be a part of many a cookout in our big yard for those who had achieved the attendance and memory work for their fifth grade year. My mom taught that grade and, every quarter, she planned a day at our house  for the students who were diligent throughout the quarter. (I was amazed at her funeral, how many came to me to tell me they still remembered her classes as the best of their lives, …”and she rewarded us with hot dogs at your house! That was soooo fun!”)

Growing up in a “culture” of teaching was hugely influential to the classes I was able to teach through the years, and to our family Bible times as our own kids were growing up.  I taught those five-year-olds until I left for college and it was a natural thing to sign up for teaching the four-year-olds with Miss Lora Laycook at the Henderson church when I went to Freed Hardeman University. From her, I learned invaluable tips and I honed skills. It was truly a joy to go in the basement of that old building Sunday after Sunday and watch a master teacher. I still sing songs with my grandchildren that I learned in that little room. Miss Lora spent  hours on hours each week making little clothespin dolls and cutting little robes out for their robes, making boxes for the kids to peek in as she told the story and making up songs that told the stories, musically. She was truly incredible, by the standards of college girls who had the privilege of observing and helping. Every semester there were two or three that had the blessing in that little concrete room in the basement. There was a never any curriculum bought…only a creative 80-year-old gentle woman with a meek spirit.

So for today and for “practical” get your pre-teens involved in helping you prepare for your Bible classes. If you aren’t teaching, get busy. I hear a lot of “…we just can’t find teachers.” Shame on the women in the kingdom when this is the case. We should be doing better; not just for our congregations, but specifically for our own children. It’s hard for us to show our own children the value of souls if we are too complacent to put any time into the most teachable, reachable souls in our own circles. 

If you haven’t been teaching,, go to your leaders and ask them to put you on the list. If you need to be in the classroom with a pro first, ask for that privilege. But whatever you do, stop showing your own kids the relative unimportance of little souls. Show the reality: Each child in the Bible school classroom has a soul that’s more important than all the money in all the pockets of all the millionaires of all the world, and, as for me and my household, we are determined to try to put Jesus in each one of those souls. Then get your own kids cutting and pasting and being part of the primary evangelism. 

You can do this. NOT doing it may be one of the most damning concessions you make in the area of service and evangelism to the little people in your house. 

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Parents Towing the Line

Posted on July 1, 2024

Sometimes, I’m amazed as I look around and see children dominating parents; I mean, really being the bosses in the God-given schools of submission tutelage. Children are, biblically, the students in the subject of submission and holy conformity and parents are the primary teachers in that education. It’s easy for parents and grandparents to slowly melt into the world’s mode of child-dictated homes using phrases that sound good; phrases like “I want my child to learn to make good choices on his own, so I just let him lead the way and learn the consequences,” or “saying no a lot to my kids can make them have negative self esteem.” (I actually read that last one in Psychology Today.)

God punished Eli in 1 Samuel 3:13 for his failure to restrain his sons. Perhaps similar failures of parents in recent decades has contributed to the rampant adult patterns we see around us of self-absorption and manipulation, often developing into narcissistic behavior. 

I think there are some phrases kids often say today (with obvious variations)  that we can and should eradicate from our homes. Here are some examples: 

“But what if I don’t want __________ for breakfast?”

“I will get in the bed, if you will do _________________.”

“But I really wanted to go to McDonald’s instead of this place.” 

‘I hate wearing these dress shoes.” 

“I’m first!” 

“Yes. But I finished that snack and I’m still hungry.” 

“I’m bored.” 

“I don’t want to drink just water.” 

“No, mom. I’m leaving that there because I am going to play with it again later.” 

“It’s too hot outside today. I’m staying in here.” 

“But that theater is not the kind with the comfy seats.” 

 When we foster this thinking, we pave the way for an unfulfilling adulthood; one in which there is never enough. We enable selfishness and selfishness never co-exists with true happiness. 

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Happy Birthday, Eliza Jane!

Posted on May 15, 2024

She’s four. Kabam! Where did these four years go?  She’s been big enough, tall enough, precocious enough to be four, for two years, now. She’s way ahead in height, but we need her to be just four, for the next year. Four is perfect for her.

She is easily the most expressive person, of any age, that I know. She can gasp at someone taking the name of God in vain, with more disdain than any church leader I know. She can give us her wink and nod when we’re conspiring to trick someone. She can jump out of the corner and scare you with more vigor than you can even stand when you’re walking by unsuspectingly. Most commonly, though, she can move to music in more poignant ways than any interpretive artist I’ve ever seen. She truly feels music and when she closes those eyes and grabs the air above her and moves rhythmically to some dramatic ballad, she does arrest your attention. 

There are a few things I’m glad she’s done being passionate about. She’s done with writing on the walls, wearing pull-ups, and being “taken out” during worship. She’s done with not liking a good green salad, and she’s done with not having her own restaurant preferences. She’s done with indifference about clothing and shoes, cartoons and favorite people. She’s opinionated. 

Her favorite color is still “lellow” but closely followed by “puhple” and “wainbow.” She loves some sweet tea (too much), carnivals, and a walk around the neighborhood. She loves Bible class, although her current struggle is staying in her seat. She really loves painting and she is over-the-top excited about gift-giving. 

She loves to play “Let’s See Who can Find”, “Remember that Day”, “Cow Counting” and the “Red Car Game” from her carseat. And she wants a prize from the joy jar for every win. She’s competitive. 

I hope she always loves to come to her Mammy’s house. I hope she wants more and more, as time goes by, to come into the House of God, His church. I know she will. That’ll be a great day.

She will soon learn to read and she will read some things, on billboards and on television screens and in people, that will fly in the face of her innocence. There will be exposure and then temptation and one day, sin. I’m glad that day is not today. For now, the innocence of being four has her securely in His arms. That innocence and virtue of five grandchildren at once, is the most wonderful thing about this stage of being a grandmother. It’s hard to believe sweeter days are ahead, but He has proven over and over that the best is yet to come. I can’t wait for heaven, His ultimate best for His people.   

Happy Birthday, Eliza Jane!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Parenting is not for Sissies; It’s for Mommies.

Posted on May 13, 2024

 

I ran across this letter to my daughter when she was expecting her first child and several moms around her must have been going through PPD. They were less than encouraging to her about life after giving birth.

She already knew all of these things I wrote to her. You do, too. But, every mama needs a reminder now and then. One day, soon, you will peer into a quiet dark room and remember the days you looked at the mess in that room,  considered the immaturity, the childish tantrum or the poor grade and said “Why don’t you grow up and take responsibility?”

And you will hear the soft whisper echoing back: “I did.”

Dear Han,

IT IS SO WORTH IT! Every time that little boy brings you dandelions and kisses, it’s worth it. Every time you lie down with that little girl for nap and she falls asleep on your breast and drools on your shirt, it’s worth it. Every time she fills in the blanks when you tell her the story of Noah or David and the Giant, it’s worth it. And, especially, the first time you tell him about the cross and tiny tears roll down his cheeks, it’s worth it a thousand times-plus. Every time you blow bubbles and she chases them, every time you build towers and forts and tents under quilts pinned to chairs in the living room, it’s worth it. When you are drinking lemonade that you paid for at the grocery, made this morning and then carted out to the end of your driveway for that lemonade stand, and then you paid for it again (only it was more expensive the second time around), it’s still worth it. Every time you see tiny hands folded in prayer or hear that little shrill voice beside you in worship singing “He loves me, He loves me, He loves me, this I know,” it is worth it. And, oh, for that one moment…that moment when you take her in your arms when she’s fresh up from the waters of baptism…just that moment is worth it over and over and over again.

But you know what? You don’t even really start to understand how much it’s worth till the day she comes to you and says “You’re a grandmother.” See, Hannah, it’s something about knowing that you’re going to get to keep making investments in a little heart…investments that will not fully render their dividends till we’re with Jesus one day. Which missed naps? What pain in childbirth? Nursing soreness? Very short-lived. Scarcity of alone time with your dad? Okay, maybe a little scarce, but I barely remember. (We have wonderful catch-up time now.)

It’s that thing you said about crying together and still being able to laugh till you can’t catch your breath. It’s all the tears you invest in your kids that make them all the more valuable to you. There are plenty of biological moms out there who don’t really get much joy. See, when you don’t put in the time and tears and occasional missed naps (but, anyway, naps are more fun when they start with a fairy tale), you don’t get the return of two hearts bonded for life in a relationship that only moms and kids know. And you don’t generally get heaven together, either.

Somehow, I think there’s a sense in which I can’t even know how “worth it” motherhood is yet. But I think I will know when I’m sitting around the throne…with you and Caleb (and the little people who grow up for Him) and I hear all those voices (with a sweet familiar tone) blending together. “He loves me. He loves me. He loves me, this I know.”

Love,
Mom