Inside the Heart, Mind, and Soul of a Child

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When I was a little girl, Daddy used to ask me sometimes:

“Charlene, do you know what you’re doing?”

I must have been one of those dreamy kind of children who need to be called back to reality every now and then—or maybe several times a day.

Perhaps you have one of that kind of kiddos. Evidently Josephine Preston Peabody was a child like that or at least knew some because she described us well in this poem from The Little Book of the Past.

The Mystic

People say to me,
‘A penny for your thought.’—
And I can’t remember thinking;
And I should think I ought.
I wasn’t sleeping, either:
I know that, because
I saw things out of both my eyes.
I wonder where I was.

Now I’m back, I see them
Sitting all around;
And the noise, together,
Makes a purring sound.
But I know Something More
Than just awhile ago.
I know Something More!—
I wonder what I know.

The Mystic by Elizabeth Shippen Green Elliott,
courtesy Library of Congress.

Each child is fearfully and wonderfully made. Each one has an outer self that other people can see and an inner self, known ultimately only to the child himself and his Creator.

O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.
You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
Psalm 139:1-6

What a privilege it is for parents to live with children where they have ever-unfolding glimpses into their inner selves and where they can lead their precious hearts, souls, and minds to Jesus.

. . . for God sees not as man sees,
for man looks at the outward appearance,
but the Lord looks at the heart.
1 Samuel 16:7b

Ray and I would deeply appreciate your prayers as he begins radiation therapy this afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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