Well would you look at that

My mother-in-law jokingly says that "kids are like pancakes, you should be able to throw the first three away." (This is comical seeing as how she only has three. But that's irrelevant.) She's saying that as first time parents we're prone to making a lot of mistakes. As the years go by and the number of children multiply we become a little calmer, a little wiser and hopefully a little better at this parenting thing.

I took my oldest pancake to the store the other day. He pushed a stray cart in from the parking lot. He walked beside me patiently as our shopping list of 5 items turned into 20. He put his arm around my shoulder, pushed the cart and unloaded the items to be rung up. He carried the bags and loaded them into the van. He smiled and laughed and offered thoughts that were more than three words long. All of this without being asked.

Sunday morning I knocked on his door to wake him for a meeting. I found him sitting on the edge of his bed, fully dressed, tying his tie. (Morning has always been one of his strengths. He never has to be asked to get up more than once and he never, ever complains about rising in the morning.) I watched him in church as he reverently passed the sacrament and then made his way over to our pew to cuddle his little sister into his lap.

Despite my crazy up and down and all over the place parenting he is somehow turning out alright.

thank goodness for resilient kids,

"A successful parent is one who has loved, one who has sacrificed, and one who has cared for, taught, and ministered to the needs of a child. If you have done all of these and your child is still wayward or troublesome or worldly, it could well be that you are, nevertheless, a successful parent. Perhaps there are children who have come into the world that would challenge any set of parents under any set of circumstances. Likewise, perhaps there are others who would bless the lives of, and be a joy to, almost any father or mother."

Howard W. Hunter