if you're ever wondering, just ask the three year old; the world according to miss briley brown

I'm not one of those people that waits until the ending to title a piece of writing or rambles.
I just can't seem to reach that plateau in my life.
(in a side note, I honestly think that is the first time I have ever used 'plateau' in a sentence.)
I suppose I'm just a stickler for sequence.
The title sets my tone; shows the path my words shall tread.

However, I'm attempting this new thing in my life called "acceptance".
Strange, huh?
Trying to better gain foothold and graspings on the everyday changes of a moving, growing life.
And also with the fact that, gasp, I am not in control of that life.
Ahh..wouldn't you think that this knowing would be enough?
Shouldn't I simply take the knowledge that the Father has placed within me for good reason and run with it?
Oh no.
And why not?
Because I am stubborn as a mule, spoiled, self centered, and broken.

Somehow I have travelled far from my point or at least my journey toward a point,
and must once again reign the thoughts that are spilling forth.
Before I begin the introspective walk down Hunter Lane, back to the whole title thing.
This will be the first writing (if this can even be called as such) or humble babbling that I have ever begun without that title heading as my constant beacon and guiding light.
As such, this post may seem a bit queer and quite 'Alice in Wonderland'-ish.
Can't say you weren't given fair warning.

You could still get away, you know.
I haven't released the arsenal of my jumbled thinkings upon the pure tapestry of the world yet.
Get away while you still can.
The only image coming to mind is a blobby monster attacking the innocents of a sky sraper filled horizon.
Sounds like a plot for a black and white horror film, huh?
And this is what I compare the contents of my mind to? Yeesh.
Call the Feds.

And again,
woah horsey; bring it in.

Digressing.
This evening I lay upon the carpeted floor of my family room, rolling with my niece as my nephew slumbered upstairs whilst my sister and mother watched on.
Briley and I (the niece in question) swung from the winding staircase, road piggy back for hours, and wore matching headbands.
Again, all of these details are superfluous.

And as I lay on my stomach with a 2 and a half year old on my back listening as I read a pop up book of 'Santa flying through the night sky and stars', this sweet little innocent says:
"Jesus made the stars."

Again.
"Jesus made the stars."

Now,
admittedly, this is partially marked down to just plain old fashioned good parenting.
But I can't help but think it is more than that.
This little girl had just stated, with all of the assurance in the world a truth which has had scholars and scientists, professors and theologians around the times baffled.
To Briley this was not a suggestion, not a hint, not even a questioned statement of belief.
But merely the simple spoken word of an affirmation.

When we are young, our minds are like a small cup.
A small cup that takes very little to fill to the brim.
As it is with faith.
However, as we grow, and our mind expands, taking in the world around us,
so does that cup.
And so does the amount of faith it takes to fill that cup.

I have often wondered if it wouldn't have been simpler for the Father to make us eternally childlike in our mind and wonder.
But I am no one to question our Maker.

As of now, my little Briley's cup is overflowing.
Yet everyday, she learns a new word, she changes, she grows, her mind forever whirring like an old Singer sewer.
At the want of keeping her forever innocent and her cup forever flowing, I would not only hinder the creature God created her to be,
but also deny her the joy that will accompany the heartache she is sure to encounter.
And so as of now,
I shall be content to watch in wonder the person she is fast becoming.
A perfect mixture of worlds and lives.
A perfect innocence that doesn't yet think to question the voices she trusts.

I would like to think that I have always been the self sacrificial type.
Willing to give and if necessary lay down for those I love.

Yet I have never in my life, felt towards anyone, the love that I feel for Miss Briley Brown and her brother Eeagan.
It is an overpowering, frightening love.
And it leaves me in wonder at the works and ways of God's hands.

And so as this mess of a pondering comes to a close,
it is done so with a sense of hope.

Since childhood, my cup and the level of faith to sustain the filling of that cup has indeed grown,
but so too has my ability to love the Lord and his children.
So too has grown my wonder at the works and words.
Indeed, my hope, and my prayer for all of you world wide webbers is that your mind and cup will never cease its growing and never become content. That you will forevermore be seeking and that your faith will forevermore keep filling.

My advice?
Just remember to look through the heart of a three year old every so often.

and now...a title.

That is all.