Check out my latest for Her View From Home, how I love a good checklist and my prayer for my children for when they grow up and look within, look in the mirror and even look at their desks. Fingers crossed they humor me by using their shiny new planners this school year…at least in this first month.
“It can be scary, ugly or look yummy. It’s like life.”️
My 5 1/2-year-old and I just cut open a pomegranate for the first time. In our family’s first Sukkah. It took a while to get the hang of it and realize that you don’t cut a pomegranate open like a typical fruit. And it’s not quick.
By hand, you peel back layer after layer of ugliness to discover hundreds of sparkling sweet treasures. The most abundant sections with dozens and dozens of jewels are hidden away and buried deep behind the yuck and the ugly: where you least expect them.
I couldn’t describe this aha moment more perfectly than my kiddo does here. In a time of way too much scary and ugly, he found sweetness. I’m sharing because we could all use some.
And to think that I was able to capture this child teaching his parent on video; the stained table and sticky hands were way worth the forever moment.
As we inched along through the congested morning rush hour traffic and cold rain hit the windshield and winds that were charging hard against the trees seemed to be more blustery than breezy, I said to my kids, “Ugh-what a yucky day.”
Silence.
After a few seconds, my almost-five-year-old piped up with this whammy:
“Mommy, you really shouldn’t say things like that. It’s not nice. Instead, you really should say ‘thank you.’ God made this rain so the trees and plants can drink and grow. They need it, and God made it for them!”
Pause.
I turned around to look at this kid. (It was a red light and traffic wasn’t moving.) This remarkable child rightfully put me in my place and corrected me.
The stormy morning became sublime. And glorious.
He changed my view. My lens. I promise you I now saw rays of sun streaming through pockets of the cloudless grey sky, like radiant lightsabers. I now realized that the trees were swaying with the gentle wind. I now felt appreciative of the cooled temps of this Florida December morning.
“You’re right, D. You’re 100% right. I am thankful that God created this morning to help the trees and plants grow. And I’m thankful for you for reminding me of that.”
“And the flowers!” he said, again pointing out that our kids always see so much more than we do.
Thanks to this kiddo, it wasn’t only the trees that grew this morning.
