he who receives children, receives the Father

"Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me."Mark 9:37

I was reminded today of this verse. I now can look at it in a completely different light. If I receive (and the definition of receive is: to hold, bear, or contain, to be burdened with; sustain, to take into one's possession) my own child (Kennedi) and hold her, bear with her, carry the burden of her, sustain her, and take her into my possession, then at the same time I am holding Jesus, bearing with Jesus, carrying the burdens of Jesus, and sustaining Jesus, and taking Him into my possession.
This brings my heart into a whole new paradigm. This is key in "raising up my child in the way she should go." If I teach her and treat her rightly in my heart and in the natural, then I will in essence be teaching her how to treat Jesus and how to love Him with her whole heart.

On a different note. and the reason why this new paradigm is so refreshing at this time,

Last night I got so frustrated with Kennedi. She wouldn't go to sleep, she wouldn't eat, she wouldn't calm down and the whole thing was that she was exhausted and wanted help, but she just wouldn't sleep. So, finally she fell asleep for about a half hour, and I just broke down. If you know me, my personality is not to be at home at all times. I would rather be working or in the prayer room, or running errands, just being around people. It gets rather trying and frustrating when all of a sudden it changes and the only person i'm spending like 70% of my time with is a little baby who can't talk (well not like I'm talking about) and needs to be held a lot and needs a lot of sleep, etc.) and the rest of the time my life is just revolved around her even when I do get a chance to get out without her. Needless to say, this is the reason for the breakdown. I simply came to the fact that "it's just not fair".
After all that, Ben, my wonderful husband, sent me to the class at ZHOP and said get out of the house and don't worry about the baby. She'll be fine.
So, I did, and came back feeling refreshed and encouraged.
Being a mom is NOT an easy job and every day I wake up to start another day with my baby girl. with the new revelation of the fact that if i receive my baby in the morning with a good heart and choose joy in this small season (it really is such a small and short time) then i can receive Jesus that morning in the same way. Praise God for the Holy Spirit and the way He helps us along.