Pearls are beautiful, graceful and I compare them to a child’s heart. Though sinful by nature, it can easily be nurtured, though not sure about how it feels, it can be filled with love, compassion, grace, forgiveness and understanding perhaps in return grow to give those traits back.

I know as parents we may think that we can only compare our terrorizing little ones to pearls in their sleep. You know when they are knocked out in slumber land, all adorable without a word. It’s beautiful right? …..but my point, we are about nurturing or rather reaching the core of that undefiled little heart. every other night, we go to check on our babies, it’s beautiful to watch them sleeping so peacefully without a care in the world and we know for sure that we wouldn’t want it any other way.

Being parents, our hearts often wonder about providing only the best for our little ones as we raise them, often forgetting to nurture their little hearts. To reach those tender places. Am not an expert in child development but as my husband and I continue to raise our two little ones, I continuously observe the constant need, want and yearning to be touched, hearts needing a parent’s love in its fullness. We may wonder how we could/can possibly do this (given the fact that truly it’s only God’s Grace that can reach that tender place);

• Start by praying for our little ones while teaching them scripture which also falls in line with learning to understand God’s Grace and love in nurturing their hearts.
• Listen to what they have to say; I know as parents we often believe that we know better and perhaps we do or maybe our little ones are still too little to know what they need or to understand when they really need help. Yes we know a lot more and they need our guidance still but sometimes there is a cry wanting to be heard and we as parents ought to listen!
• Being patient (extra patient I mean). Having children has been one of my biggest patience lessons ever! I have learned a level of patience I didn’t even know existed or could ever exist in me. But I know that being patient with our little ones is very beneficial because it helps us in being slow to react but instead thinking through situations.
• Disciplining with love not out of rage; I personally can’t stress this enough. It is very important to learn to be loving to our children even in moments of having to discipline them. Yes it matters to those little hearts. The rage can only be damaging not building.
  
• Setting examples worth imitating. Children will always try to imitate their parents, this is a lesson I have learned the hard way. If we think that behaving a certain way wouldn’t be something we would want our kids to imitate, then we need to change for our own good and their sake.
• Consistent loving of our little ones. It may seem obvious to love our little ones, but believe me as parents sometimes they are irritable and our love is pushed real hard. In this case our babies need to know for sure there’s is our loving that will stay regardless.
• Having and showing compassion towards our munchkins. Seeking for their forgiveness when it’s needed. This can be a challenge because as parents we may not want to appear broken or even loose our pride in the process of apologizing but in our (my husband and I)’s experience, a simple apology to our little ones when needed reaches a special spot in their hearts as we are continuously noticing them imitating the same when they reach out even to us (their parents) to say they are sorry as needed.
• Watching our tongues towards our little ones. Sometimes parents can call hurtful names to their little ones…..I know we are all not perfect, but we need to remember constantly just as we don’t like the thought of strangers or other people bullying our children, if we are not careful, the words we say to our own may turn out to be just that (bullying) which is heart breaking to those little pearls (hearts).
• Being more observant and understanding that as our little ones grow; they are also learning to express themselves as well as dealing with different emotions as they grow through different stages. As adults, it’s easy to get annoyed during that process for them but we ought to understand that their growth is probably more confusing emotionally and they need our tender loving along the way.

As we continue to raise our munchkins, tending to those little pearls (hearts) is my hope and prayer. And we all continue to learn, and yes some days we still fail miserably but we don’t and will not give up!