Sunday, August 17, 2008

I need to become like a child

I was looking back through notes I had written, and found these from a few months ago:

When I was pregnant w/ Joel, I was so concerned about how the kids would get along. I wish that I could say our expert parenting produced this wonderful relationship, but I think it is just the way their personalities mesh. A couple of moments from yesterday that made me smile:

Ariana went into full four-year-old meltdown mode because "her broccoli wasn't green enough." I was not as sympathetic as I could have been, although I figured out later that what she meant was that she wanted only the florets and not the stems. Joel, however, immediately ran and started hugging and kissing her, and saying "I sowwy, Nana (Ariana)." She hugged him back tightly, forgetting about the broccoli, and in a couple of moments turned to me with a huge smile and said, "Joel sure loves me a lot, doesn't he?" Then they went back to the table and shared the rest of the broccoli.

Last night, as he started to get sleepy, she began to stroke his head and sing a little song about how much she loved her Joel. There was so much love in their eyes as they snuggled close. Finally, he fell asleep as she continued to caress his head and sing to him. wub.gif

I have to share a brag on her that happened just now. We've been working on short Bible verses during our breakfast time the last few days, but I wasn't sure how much sunk in. Well, just now, she asked me what 'patient' means. I told her that it means waiting without getting angry, even when it is hard, and that sometimes it is very hard for me to be patient, but that if I pray God helps me. She immediately prayed one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard asking for God to help her be patient while Joel took his turn on the slide, and thanking Him for loving us so much. :wub: Then she happily repeated 'Love is patient, love is kind," until he finished.

I need to put things into practice that well!

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