A few weeks ago, when I was in my funk of project overload, I was singing Milo to sleep one night. Every night I sing the same few songs, and one of them is “I am a Child of God.” It’s a sweet, simple song from the children’s songbook of my church, and a song that I have both heard and sung since I could hear and speak. It must have been a particularly hard parenting day, and I think I felt like I hadn’t been quite the mom that I hoped to be. As I sang, I was touched by the words “…has given me an earthly home with parents KIND and DEAR.”
I thought, “Am I being that KIND and DEAR parent that God hopes His children have? Here I am telling my baby boy about the type of parent he deserves, but am I striving for those qualities?” I especially like the adjectives used. KIND: sympathetic, affectionate, helpful, forbearing, gentle, attentive. DEAR: highly valued, precious, beloved, adored, revered.
I love that the words aren’t ORGANIZED and PUNCTUAL, or EDUCATED and SUCCESSFUL, or CULINARY and CREATIVE. The words KIND and DEAR speak to the true relationship and interaction between parent and child, rather than the traits or talents of the parent herself. KIND is how I should act and feel towards my boys, and DEAR is how they will feel I am, if I do so well. That’s all it’s really about. The one on one, heart to heart, loving influence that we are in each other’s life. I can work on that.
My small parental epiphany called for some ink and (handmade) paper. I spent this week’s Letterpress Happy Hour at Pyramid Atlantic printing a few reminder posters.
Be Kind and Dear. Simple as that.
Speaking of Kind and Dear, my own beloved parents are in town for a few days. Milo is over the moon to have “mamo and papa” around to hang out with him. Eliot is getting lots of grandparent snuggles. And I got to enjoy the midnight screening of Breaking Dawn with this good sport mama of mine! She is kind, dear, and just the perfect touch of crazy:)
btw: the movie is so bad. And so good. See it and you’ll understand. You’ll also understand my 3am tweet (that I’m going to repeat because no one was awake and I think it was funny. Yep, I’m that person who says the joke again one more time, just a little louder and everyone’s all “We heard you the first time, it just wasn’t funny.” Whelp, here goes:)
livefreemiranda Miranda Anderson
Amen!
