My Two Year Olds are Dating

My two year olds are dating.

Since about the time they were born we have been saying that they are not going to be allowed to date until they grow up and move out of our house, but lately we’ve decided to make exceptions. No, they didn’t meet any three feet tall perfect gentlemen who’ve won our hearts for our girls. (Sorry Elias, Caleb, Hudson and James – maybe one day but you’ve got a lot of proving yourselves to do buddies). No, I’m talking about the girls going on sweet, special dates with their gentleman of a daddy.

Jason has been taking the girls on dates for a while. He takes them to Starbucks and Top Pot for doughnuts and chocolate milks and they do stickers or color or play with their little calico critters. But this time of year they get a very special Christmas date and I will just let Jason tell all the details of what he planned for them and all the curious and cute details of how it all went down. Please definitely visit his blog for that.

About two months ago, Jason and I spotted the perfect Christmas date dresses for them at Costco. I was so excited because they have the most beautiful little girl dresses there for like $16 and they start in size 2T, which the girls can wear now. Kanah picked out a shimmery blue one and Grace picked out a pink one with a great big bow. They would not keep their hands off of them throughout the store and they hung up in their closet waiting for the special day.

I got them ready before each of their Christmas dates and after about a hundred pictures, sent them off with their daddy, who had also dressed up in something just like what he wore on our Christmas date.

What’s unique about my angle is that I am the mama of these gorgeous little beings. I love them with a mother’s heart that knows the hearts of women, knows what we long for, what we look for and treasure and desire. I know that even my little two year old girls desire to be captivating, to be honored, to be noticed, to be treasured, to be known and to have time spent with them. They are little, but they are little women nonetheless.

And God designed us to look to God for all of this. It’s a God-relationship desire in their hearts, and God has called Jason to take care of those little hearts as He would and to pursue Him as the Father in heaven will pursue them all their lives. Jason will be teaching them that God wants to know their hearts as he sits across from them over pancakes and stares in to their little faces, forgetting to take a bite. He will be teaching them God wants to know their thoughts and concerns by taking their hand when they walk and asking them little questions like “Do you want to bring Ella with you? Do you want Daddy to carry you?” He will be teaching them that God sees their getting up and their lying down and all of their happenings in between when they prance around in their dresses and Jason says, “Grace! Kanah! You are so beautiful, I can’t even believe it! Daddy is so blessed!” They will know their Father in heaven’s heart because their Daddy’s heart is becoming more and more like HIS for THEM daily. God is making Jason’s heart more and more loving as Jason keeps giving his life to Jesus.

Isn’t this beautiful? My daughters, my little crowns, my delights, are already getting to know what God is like because of Jason loving them well. What a gift to a mommy who has known the joy and hope and delight and gratitude in my heart to get to follow Jesus, my Savior, and to see that my children are understanding the GOSPEL because her husband is putting it on display daily: That God loved us so much that he sent his Son Jesus into the world to love us and die for us and resurrect from the dead so that we would be free from sin and be free to live in a love relationship with the Lord and to have eternal life with him. This gospel is seen as Jason constantly enters my little girls’ worlds, caring about what they care about and spending time with them on their level, giving his life away for them so that they can enjoy relationship with him.

And in all of this he is pointing to our Father who has done this on a grander level, with a greater love, pursuing us so that we can enjoy a life with him both now and forever.

What is also beautiful is that we live in a community of belivers, mostly from our Mars Hill church, who also believe daddys should “date” their daughters and love them well. I love hearing about our friends’ kids daddy dates because it gives me such great joy for all of these children that they are being loved so well and that through the love of these mommys and daddys, we hope that these children will see that God placed a love for them in all of our hearts that is FROM GOD and that it is a demonstration that they are being pursued by a loving, gracious God who made them for a close relationship with Him. What a community!

Check out Jason’s blog in the next few days for pictures and all the hilarious and adorable details for Kanah and Grace’s dates. And hopefully by next year we will also be posting about Salem’s mommy dates! He’s got to work a few more months on opening doors and Jason has got to buy him a wallet and I’ll be ready to be picked up for MY date! More to come…