My Son

When I think about my son it makes me feel so proud to be a father.  Though there are times I don’t understand what is going on in his little mind I enjoy watching as he plays and grows.  The adventures are endless with a little guy running around the house and in our life.

Just the other day we were all getting dressed to go out to buy groceries and have lunch and my son comes to me with one of my neckties with Tigger on it and wants to wear it.  A little silly but why not have fun while your young before people tell you what you can’t do.  I told my son he needed to change his shirt to a collared shirt to wear the tie, so he ran to the room to find one quickly.  As we walked around at the grocery store people just looked at him and smiled and he would smile back just as cute as a three-year old does wearing a plaid collared shirt untucked, jean shorts, and a necktie.  If he brings joy to a stranger when they were having a bad day I feel it is all worth it— then the fight to get the necktie back before bed time, he finally gave in and we put it where he could find it the next day.  Then the next day as I worked from home my son ask me to put the necktie on him again as he played that day.  It does bring a smile even to a father’s day when he is busy with the things we as adults get busy with.

One day I’m sitting in the office doing some work and my son is off to the side playing.  I catch a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye and notice he is playing with a couple of his larger cars; cars that are about the size of his feet.  Oh but he wasn’t just playing with them as cars, they had become roller skates, no ties or anything he was just standing on top of them.  I calmly told him that maybe that wasn’t a good ideal and he quickly got off of them.  The whole time he was doing this he was definitely trying to hide what he was doing when he was right in front of me and didn’t think I was watching!  I caught him doing the same a few days later and I’m sure we haven’t seen the end of my son’s homemade roller skates yet.

Just like most children when my son is put into his car seat he is out for the count.  The fun part is going out he always has a toy or two in his hands and sometimes an advertisement flyer or catalog.  He will sometimes let these go when he is sleeping but sleeping for fifteen to twenty minutes he doesn’t forget what he had and he has to find it again before getting out of the car.  But if he does forget about something he dropped and I forget also it is always exciting to find again a few days later, like getting a new toy for the first time but it is a torn worn-out catalog.  It is often interesting to see what he wants to take with each time we go out and I know the joy and strangeness of this is far from over!

It is  the combinations of each of these things and many other things that bring joy to this father.  Even in my son’s young age I see how he is developing who he is different from me or my wife.  I feel this brings us back to the feeling and things I’ve learned and felt becoming a father; how our heavenly Father feels about each of us.  We do things that He thinks is silly in the way we dress or decide to get from one place to another or the things we grasp on to that are so important to us and He sees them no different from how we see the ads that are in our mailbox every day.  I want to help my son grow and know what is important, but at the same time I want to do for him as our heavenly Father has done for us; He gives us what we need and lets us make the decisions we want to make.  There is discipline we receive from our heavenly Father just as my son receives from me.  How do we take these situations?  Do we really grow?

I want the best for my son as our Father wants for us.  I pray for him everyday many times a day.  Soon to come more lessons from the heart of a daughter!

photo credit: Me!