It often appears as though my children aren’t DOing anything. They lay on the sofa and make primal sounds and make me wonder how leaders are made cause if all boys are like this….well, we won’t go there.
Yesterday, my son was supposed to be doing “something.” You know, something I told him to do and because I said it, it must be more important than anything he was going to do (oh, my pride…that’s another post).
I came downstairs to peek in and see what was hindering his progress in completing (uh, actually starting) my project. I found him paging through our wedding album. My mouth opened and I know the words were on their way to scolding, but then my eyes changed.
He was doing something far more important. He was learning where he came from. He was watching the establishment of a marriage that ultimately developed into his life story. He was receiving his legacy.
I sternly said his name in my you’re-in-trouble-voice. He looked up with the uh-oh, what’d I do face. I love using the stern voice when they aren’t in trouble. Cracks me up (my mom used to do that).
With his attention, I gave him this instruction: “Don’t look by yourself. Sit next to your brother and tell him all about the people in the pictures.”
With such joy, he bounded off one sofa and over to the one supporting his younger brother. I thought the weight of the album was going to knock him over, but he kept his balance.
They spent the next half-hour together, S learning the names of his now-deceased grandparents, recalling the names of cousins who we see all too infrequently, and pondering when he came to be a part of this amazing story called Marriage & Family.
T was doing something. He was becoming the person God wants him to be. You can only know where you’re going when you know from whence you came.
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