summer thanksgivings

Our first trip of the summer up to Rimrock Lake. A respite and quiet of playing in the water, reading along the shore and picnicking.
Most days are full of of a flurry of activity.  What a blessing it is that my girls have gotten to participate in so many of the kids' activities at church.  The older two spend their mornings every other week with other kids from the community at church for Day Camp which has given them so many opportunities to make friendships with the other girls their ages. We spend the afternoons of those same weeks in the housing project nearby doing what can be described as a backyard Bible club.   This is the first summer where I feel they have really started to feel like a part of the group of kids.  They come home with stories about their friends and the activities they've done and I can tell especially Lyddie is feeling really happy about those friendships, especially when that friend seeks her out too and calls Lyddie her best friend.  I'm thankful.  
While these developing friendship for my girls bring me joy and hope, my joy feels cautious by knowing that eventually the deeper into friendships they go over the years is likely to open up doors to knowledge of brokenness and suffering as they grieve for the hurts of their friends they are growing up with.  Their eyes will not be long covered or blinded to the sufferings of others in a deeply hurting community.   It is a serious matter that I pray over and need to pray more over.  I am conscious of choices to preserve the beauty of childlike innocence while also encouraging them to understand God's love for the broken and hurting people of our world (including themselves!). The things is, I want to help teach this kind of tenderness in them, but what if it doesn't turn out in the end to be tenderness but instead a hardness toward the Lord for allowing such pain on earth?  It's probably not as clear-cut as "either/or," especially in the complex range of human emotion and understanding that comes with age.  I long for them to grow up to know His love and turn to pour it out to others who need it.  Those are my primary parenting goals and these are some of the challenges of my mothering that I am mindful of in the quiet moments.  I am thankful that God promises to love and protect my children, who are lent to me for only a little while.  I know that when I ask Him for wisdom, He will lead me and I can trust Him as He walks beside us.  Thanks for reading, my friends.  I will one day look back and see how He has answered my prayers for guidance and protection and wisdom.