“Then you will call upon me and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” {JEREMIAH 29:12}
In the middle of a triple-digit heat wave, the back-to-school hustle had left me panting for breath. The humidity was stifling. I had been moving non-stop all day, from volunteering in the classroom, to groceries, and making dinner. Add physical fatigue to the mental demands, I found myself spun tight. I multi-tasked cooking and helping the kiddo with homework, while listening to my hubby discuss car trouble. I felt the strings of my heart begin to snap.
When it all feels too much and we begin to unravel, where do we turn?
My daughter had finished her math problems and picked up a new coloring book we had received in the mail. She brought it over to the kitchen table, “Mommy, wanna color with me?” Resisting the urge to say I was busy, I put the noodles in a pot to boil and sat down next to her.
As we colored, I felt my shoulders relax and my breathing slow. With the pages laid out flat on the table, she concentrated her crayon within the large patterns on her side. I preferred the intricate lines on my side, choosing “anemone pink” to pencil in the jeweled heart design.
The fragmented angles of the hearts on the page were like the sharp edges around mine. A verse scrolled through the middle of one open heart in the middle: Seek me with all your heart.
Had I paused for one moment in all-the-live-long day to seek God amid my struggles?
As my pencil filled in the hard edges of the heart shapes, I felt mine begin to soften. And I prayed silently while we colored together, Lord, I’ve been running in circles all day. Help me to find my center in you.
The devotional printed on the page was titled The Power of Prayer out of the Big and Little Coloring Devotional. God had used the gracious words of author Rachel C. Swanson and the artwork of illustrator Jacy Corral to teach me to be still and pray in this moment.
As a mother, my vision is to teach my daughter how to hide God’s word in her heart and to pray in all circumstances. That through remembering His promises and the power of prayer, we can discover a deep connection with God that surpasses anything in this world. We can become women after God’s heart.
Big and Little Coloring Devotional allows us to enter into small moments where we can pause, breathe deep, and be still. We can connect in meaningful ways with our children even in the middle of the hustle. We can be intentional in our desires to minister and encourage our little ones wherever we are.
If you would like to read more about how this very special coloring book came to be, please visit the official website for Big and Little Coloring Devotional.
{Releases October 1st! Pre-order at www.BigAndLittleColoringDevotional.com/pre-order }
