Tethered

Romans 12:1 I beseech ye therefore brethren by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice…

My six year old son sat on my bed, his shirt pulled up staring at his belly button, deep in thought.

“Mommy, why do I have a belly button?”

“It’s where you and I were hooked up to each other when you were in my belly,” I explain.

“Why were we hooked up?”

“It’s where you got your blood and your oxygen from me. It’s how I fed you.”

He smiled, “Now you feed me in the kitchen.”

The cord may have been cut between me and my boy six years ago, but like he pointed out, not much has changed. I’m still the one feeding him, washing him, holding him, talking to him, helping him, healing him (even if it’s just a kiss on a hurt.) I am still irrevocably tethered to this comical, blonde haired boy. The same is true for my other two sons, and my little daughter.

Invisible cords of connection stretch out from me to them nourishing them, feeling them, probing them to detect problems. I thought when I was pregnant that I would be so relieved to have them out here in the world free of the threat of miscarriage or of harming them somehow with what I was eating or what I was doing. I was terrified of falling and somehow harming the little child inside of me. Once they were born, though, the weight of responsibility intensified. Because now, not only are these children at the mercy of my possible clumsiness, they are at the mercy of every word I speak to them, every choice I make for them. Their spiritual survival now depends on these invisible cords tethering them to me as they watch my life, listen to my words and (help me God) follow my footsteps.

“Present your bodies a living sacrifice.” We mothers are a living, breathing source of energy that our children are feeding off of every day. Yes we cook for them, and wash them, and care for them when they are sick, and do everything in our power to keep them safe and alive. But remember today that our words, our compassion and our empathy is what will keep them alive emotionally and spiritually. You will forever be tethered to each of your children. Nourish them well.