Determined to Walk and Through the Eyes of a Child

I realize my youngest is a bit behind with his large motor skills but that doesn't stop this Mama from being completely stoked that he is walking.  He took his first steps a couple weeks ago (on Father's Day) but hasn't shown much interest in walking since then.  Last night he was determined though and I was so excited/relieved.  You can watch the video below.  Please excuse my over excited baby talk voice.  I normally don't talk that way but I will use any means necessary at this point to get him excited about walking!  ;)

Through the Eyes of a Child

There are so many major (political and moral) issues going on in the world right now, namely marriage no longer being classified as a union between one man and one woman and the shutting down of the bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks.  Don't worry, I am not going to harp on these issues in this post.

The purpose of this post is to say that these big issues are being discussed in main stream media and all over the radio.  There has been no turning away from it recently.  It's not that I want to close my eyes to it because I am fully aware and involved in what is going on with these issues.  It's just that I know my boys will one day be asking me about these issues after hearing of them through media outlets or their friends talking at school.  And the other day I got to thinking about how I am going to explain these things to Garrison and Ethan. 

I can only imagine what Garrison's face will look like when I have to explain to him what abortion is.  There is no sugar coating or downplaying what it is.  And it makes me wonder how pro choice parents explain abortion to their children when asked about it.  Would a mother downplay it by telling her daughter that a baby in someone else's tummy (who has been or will be aborted) is different or less meaningful than the younger sibling that mommy might have carried for her daughter?  Telling a young child (or even a pre-teen) that it's a "woman's right to choose" is illogical.  It would be interesting to view a child's reaction when first told about abortion.  I can't imagine there is a child out there that would shrug this off as a woman's right to choose as opposed to killing an unborn child.  I just know how innocent children are and I am so fearful of shattering or suppressing that innocence one day.

Since Garrison has been about two I have been having open discussions with him about child predators.  Of course the conversations were always age appropriate.  When a couple of teachers/coaches were recently arrested close to our town for sexual child abuse I knew it was time to go a little deeper with that conversation with Garrison.  I didn't get into sexual details of course but I had to explain to him how sometimes these adults can manipulate children (for example tell them they will hurt their family if they say anything, which is what one of the local coaches said to the little girl).  When he asked why people hurt children I told him some people are just sick in the head.  It's almost as if I could see a piece of innocence shed from his soul in that moment and it made me cry for my son.  And the most heart breaking part was his response: "Mommy, if anyone ever tried to hurt me like that I would tell them that Jesus loves them and that is wrong and they need to go see a doctor to get their head fixed."  I guess this was somewhat of a shining light in this dark world to know that my son can still hold on to that sense of naivete and compassion for someone who is such a "monster" in an adult's eyes.

You may be thinking that children are naïve and just don't understand the reality of how the world works.  But God commands us to see things through a child's eyes instead of through the jaded eyes of the modern world.  This is such a powerful scripture:

"At that time the disciples approached Jesus and said, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me."  ~Matthew 18:1-5


He tells us to become like children.  I want to sustain a child like joy.  I want to sustain a child like faith.  I want to sustain a child like view of moral issues and have clear black and white boundaries of good and bad, righteous and evil.


~Jewels*