The Slow-Ripening Fruits of Mothering: Time Our Classics

How are you doing as a mom? If you're like most of us, you base your assessment on appearances: how the children are behaving, the progress they're making, the evidences you see that they're moving forward. After all, as Matthew 7:17 tells us, "By their fruits ye shall know them." But appearances can be deceiving, and they don't always tell us the whole story. As Emily Watts points out, most fruit isn't really very good until it's ripe—and "children are the slowest-ripening fruit there is."...