Whose Reflection?

Tonight in my "Stress Management for Women" class, I was talking about how embarrassed I get when I see/hear Mikaela playing with her dolls and she is seemingly constantly getting onto them or spanking them. I often worry that this is her picture of me and of motherhood. I want to think that sometimes I show her that I love her and that we have good times together, but I rarely see her acting that out. After class, we were walking to the car, and the well-lit parking lot cast our shadows on the ground as we walked. Mikaela, delighted, shouted "Look, Mommy, I'm walking in your shadow!" I welled up with tears, feeling like that was a heck of a sermon or devotional or something! In the simplicity of her statement of joy, Mikaela spoke a truth to my heart that I so often forget - I am casting a shadow over her of something, someone, on a moment-by-moment, day-by-day basis. The question is, "What shadow and who am I reflecting on her daily?" That is so convicting if I really think about what I continually reflect to her. Is it Jesus? Satan? Self? I long to have a shadow for her to walk in that is really a reflection of Jesus, so that she can truly be walking in His shadow! Oh, that I would allow God to reflect through me and that she would grow up and say, "Mommy, I am walking in Jesus' shadow!"