Contrasting Perspective

Yesterday afternoon I wanted to blog so bad...I just didn't have the time! I was crushed. It was one of those moments that parents simply detest.

As I went to round up DS 4 after school so we could go home. He is usually on the playground playing with stragglers and the after school kids. Some of the stragglers include some of our PTA Moms and their kids. They socialize for a while after school while their children play. As I approached the play area, two PTA Moms and their kids came to me and said, "We are sorry our kids were taunting your ds on the playground. We made them all apologize to him and have told them there will be consequences for it." I told them I would talk to ds and was sure that it was probably nothing to worry about.

I found ds and he seemed no worse for wear. I asked him anyway, "What happened on the playground?" He said, "Oh the kids were saying 'Your Mama does ___________' and 'Your Daddy does ___________'." You know it's the same old thing. Kids have been doing this for years. And yet, I wanted to go and give each of those children a piece of my mind (I didn't).

And as I drove, I thought....

They are born SO innocent. Without sin. Without knowledge of hatred or ugliness. And slowly, but surely, their innocence is whittled away. And while I'd love to shield him from all the ugliness that is in the world...I can't. I think my job is so much more than that. It's to show him how to be grace-filled in the face of ugliness. It's to show him how to guard your heart and mind. It's to show him how to sift through the "ugliness and hatred" that sometimes fills our lives and find the "beauty and love". It's my job to demonstrate the mind of Christ so that he will know how to respond when this stuff happens.

I KNOW I stewed over this much longer than he did. In fact, he was his happy-go-lucky self pretty much immediately.

This morning, on my way to work, it once again popped into my mind. Just as it did, he asked me: "Mom, how is it that you know so much about my personality?" I said, "HUH?" He rephrased his question. I replied, "Because I am raising you. What do you mean by personality?" He replied, "You know how when we go in an elevator, people always say 'Oh He's SO CUTE!'?"

I can't honestly recall the last time that happened...but I am glad that he can. I'm glad that those words were on his mind OVER and ABOVE the playground incident.

It's all about perspective, isn't it????