Kids Get It

This is my daughter’s typical personality. She’s the free spirit...the clown...the spit-fire who tells it like it is. It was a typical night with a typical bath...the kind where she makes a Santa beard of the bubbles and splashed entirely too much water on the floor.

...a couple of hours later she asked...as she was about to fall asleep in my lap just like every night...”Mommy, will we be old when the days are over?”

I asked her what she meant.  I mean...what a jarring question from a 4 year old. Surely she didn’t mean what I thought.

With tears in her eyes she clarified the best she could though the intermittent tearful gasps...“When there are no more days...will we be old?”

Why is my 4 year old contemplating Armageddon?  Where is this coming from?  Why would she ask this?????

I did MY best to comfort her...and I made it worse. Dave tried too. No bueno.

I was out of answers...and she wasn’t out of tears.

Then I asked her...”Do you think we should pray to Jesus?”

Did I really say that out loud?   I’m the worst pray-er. You’ll never see me volunteer to even Pray for dinner!  I’m the last example you’d select for someone to share a prayer.

But it was the only agreeable solution I’d suggested in what seemed like hours.

She closed her eyes.

I prayed out loud...for peace in her heart and for Jesus to take away her worry.

It was most certainly a simple prayer.  Like I said...I don’t have the gift of praying pretty.
One of my most common “prayers” goes exactly like this:  “Dear God...Seriously????”

I heard her deep sigh, felt her relax, and she drifted off to sleep in my arms.  As though not a tear had been shed.  Just a peaceful, sleep you’d expect from a little girl... the kind who was not discussing the end of time just moments before.

Her tears now shifted to me.
God...what kind of point are you trying to prove over here?!?!  What message are you trying to deliver here???

Jesus, himself made no secret of His bias for the faith of a child.

From seemingly nowhere, a burden, much too cumbersome for the heart of a 4 year old (or any of us for that matter), became overwhelming.

The burden surpassed logic.
And much like the rest of us lost in our fear, Luci could not process the reasoning explained.

She so readily accepted turning to Jesus... and I’d like to say I do that too.

But tonight I saw what “childlike faith” actually means...

Lucibelle Sha didn’t turn to Jesus as a last resort.

She eagerly accepted my offer to pray and vehemently denied all other ideas.

More so...

Luci turned to Jesus with ABSOLUTE faith...with no doubt in her mind that He would most certainly calm her fears.
And He did.

There was nothing in her that thought that He would fall short... that she would need to perform some other act to be more deserving... or that she was undeserving.

Nope... she gave her fear to Him, and she walked away from it with absolute peace and confidence.

I can’t remember the last time I had that kind of faith. The kind when I didn’t have a question or care in the mix...

I guess God does though...He remembers. He remembers the eager innocence and the relationship that comes with the child-like faith He wants so desperately for all of us.

He misses that...He misses it so much that He would use my daughter to snap my heart to attention and draw me closer to Him as she peacefully sleeps.

“Luci,” I tried to explain, “we will have ALL the days together...even after the days are over.”   And that, I very much believe.

Put Your Claws Away, Mama Bear

Today, Baker got his heart hurt....
“You can’t sit here.  There’s not enough room.”
While I’m certain it’s not the first time he’s been treated unfairly by other kids who are also learning to balance life and ego and social behaviors...it’s the first time he’s ever noticed it.

And...after 35 years of life (short...nerdy...free-spirited...square peg...L-I-F-E), 16 of which have been spent as an educator...I can say with certainty, this first will ABSOLUTELY not be the last.

I had to operate counter to my instinct... the instinct with teeth and claws. I think as parents and protectors we spend times like these thinking of ways to defend our own and get back at the ones who caused the pain.

Instead, we identified the feeling and thought of ways to respond if Baker ever sees anyone else experiencing the same social stress.  Rather than remaining the victim, he feels empowered to be someone else’s hero.  In Baker’s words, “I can use my experience as a shield for someone else who might go through the same thing, but they won’t have to feel any pain from it.”

May we all learn from our hard moments, how to bless the lives of those around us.

The BEST Lego Tower Ever

It’s so simple...but it’s so meaningful...
These children are our greatest blessing...

Lucibelle comes into the living room tonight after being in the playroom for a good while.
“Bubba!  You have to come see the LEGO castle I built!”

She doesn’t come get Dave or me...but gets her Bubba...her hero...the best LEGO builder she knows...

Baker doesn’t miss a beat. He goes straight in, and we can hear him.

“Luci!  Look what you did all by yourself!...This is so cool!...I love your tower!...Look at the colors!”

Baker then comes in to get Dave and me...”You have to come see what Luci built!”

Baker is 5 years (almost exactly) older than Luci.
He built the Millennium Falcon when he was 6. He began building sets intended for 8-12 year olds when he was 5.
He builds LEGO scenes and sets at age 8 that are unbelievable.

But his pride in his sister’s LEGO Duplo tower tonight...it was greater than any personal pride I’ve ever seen him show toward any of his personal endeavors.

When we went to see her “castle”, Baker had built her up so much that she was literally beaming... Her smile...shoulders shrugged, mouth open, brows wide with satisfaction... perhaps the most intense and meaningful PRIDE I’ve seen from Luci in her 3.5 years.

...more than her first steps...
...more than when she first figured out how to put on her own shoes...
...more than potty training...

Baker stood at the nursery window when Lucibelle was born and promised her he would be her hero...and he has held true to his promise.

Lucibelle’s pride in impressing her hero tonight was one of the most special things I’ve witnessed in my life, and my heart is so incredibly touched.

***she then...in true Lucibelle form...commenced elated destruction of said “castle” (which is why there is no picture).