This being the first White Wednesday, it felt fitting to grab a ditty from a great book titled The Adventist Home since my nephews are going to be here for two weeks. Check it out:
Noble Traits Are Developed in Caring for Children.– I have a very tender interest in all children, for I became a sufferer at a very early age. I have taken many children to care for, and I have always felt that association with the simplicity of childhood was a great blessing to me. . . . {AH 160.2}
The sympathy, forbearance, and love required in dealing with children would be a blessing in any household. They would soften and subdue set traits of character in those who need to be more cheerful and restful. The presence of a child in a home sweetens and refines. A child brought up in the fear of the Lord is a blessing. {AH 160.3}
Care and affection for dependent children removes the roughness from our natures, makes us tender and sympathetic, and has an influence to develop the nobler elements of our character. {AH 160.4}
Do you find that to be true? I do. The boys have only been here for three days and already my patience has been tried, my sympathy, my attention, my multi-tasking skills; kids are something else.
Here’s the thing though, I wouldn’t trade them for the world. I’ve watched them grow from little balls of fat to smart, intelligent, energetic, handsome little boys.
My older nephew (6) just graduated Kindergarten. He’s reading well and writing his numbers to 100! I remember visiting him in the hospital as a newborn when I nicknamed him “Kermit” because of his frog legs. I remember sleeping with him as a baby and toting him around everywhere. I recall his first teeth and his first steps. I still can hear the first time he said, “I yuv you.” Now, he’s reading Dick and Jane and comprehending without pictures.
And my younger nephew (4) is right on his heels. You should have heard him singing his alphabets so proudly the other day! He follows me around and is super inquisitive; Mr. Adventure. He and Kermit are a pair to reckon with.
They’re showing me that my professed Christianity is nothing but a soiled dry weave maxi-pad thrown out on the sidewalk and baking in the noonday sun. Did that turn your stomach? It should because when I think of how pathetic my Christian example is, I need to hurl. But most importantly they’re showing me God. They’re showing me His saving grace. The way He looks at me as I’m sleeping; the way He reprimands me and still has His arms and lap open for consoling; the way He listens to me contently even when I’m speaking seeming gibberish; the way He gently guides me as I read His word.
I’m not a Father, just a doting uncle, but I only hope that these next two weeks with the boys continue to show me how great God is to me. Hopefully I’ll begin to follow and mimick and inquire about Him as much as Marcus, Mr. Adventure, does with me.
I’m going to leave you with another thought from The Adventist Home, so be sure to leave a comment:
A Child’s Influence on Enoch.–After the birth of his first son, Enoch reached a higher experience; he was drawn into a closer relationship with God. He realized more fully his own obligations and responsibility as a son of God. And as he saw the child’s love for its father, its simple trust in his protection; as he felt the deep, yearning tenderness of his own heart for that first-born son, he learned a precious lesson of the wonderful love of God to men in the gift of His Son, and the confidence which the children of God may repose in their heavenly Father.
*Both passages taken from Chapter 23 “Children A Blessing” from Ellen G White’s
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