Become As Little Children

John is teething, has been teething for a whole month....or maybe longer. He has 4 molars coming in and they are taking their sweet time. The poor kid is in so much pain. Sleeping just hasn't been the same. Today he had a pretty rough teething fever (I hope/think it's a teething fever). I couldn't get him to eat any breakfast (he was crying an crying. Oh it was sad.) until a half hour after Tylenol and Orajel, and still I had to put him on my lap in front of home videos of himself to get him to try to eat anything. He loves to watch himself in videos, and I always play the one of him cracking up to try to help him feel better. It usually does. I hope these month long molar woes will end soon! It seems like they will in a few weeks, 2 of them are so close to the surface! Any day now, they'll break through.

Since he's learned to walk, John is getting faster and stronger at it, but he's also much less cautious and he falls a lot. He gets bumps and bruises and cuts. Today he fell (no injury) when Stella Winder was over at our house playing for a bit, and John was crying and sitting on the floor. I was on my way over, and Stella was already there patting him on the back. What a sweet heart! Isn't that wonderful!?

John and Stella are such good friends. They love each other and they are getting better at playing together. Whenever we near our front door, John exclaims, "Shee-aah!?" and points to the door because he knows that on the other side of that door and two feet over is Stella's door and he hopes she'll come and play.

We have a curtain over the big window in our door, and they often play peekaboo when Stella is in the entryway. Such simple joys they have.

Then, John was sitting on my lap still feeling kind of sad because of his fall, and his teeth hurting, and I was feeding him and Stella some puffs for a snack. I was taking it in turns to give them each a puff a time. My heart just melted when on one of John's turns, he stretched out his hand and offered Stella his puff. Maybe he was saying thank you for comforting him.

Then later, when Seth was holding John, he reached out to me and patted me on the back. He knows how to pay it forward. These sweet little children teach me so much, and I want to be more like them.

They find the little things in life that make them happy, they love unconditionally, they see the world with wonder and gratitude, they care about you and want to comfort you no matter how big or small your problem, and they recognize the beauty in you. John says "Mama" when he sees me, even when I feel terrible and I look how I feel. If I carry him by our mantel and he sees our wedding picture where I looked my very best he exclaims, "Mama!" then he looks back and me and says, "Mama!" He knows it's me and that I'm still beautiful, no matter how I look or feel, I'm still his Mama.

These experiences today made me think of Matthew 18

 1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the ^agreatest in the kingdom of heaven?

 2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

 3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little ^achildren, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

 4 Whosoever therefore shall ^ahumble himself as this little ^bchild, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

 5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my ^aname receiveth me.

I will work on that, becoming as a little child this Christmas season. 

Today, I watched this video about The Reason Behind Christmas, and it ties in perfectly with my goal. It is about keeping Christ in Christmas, about giving the gifts He wants us to give, the gifts you can't buy with money, the gifts that John gives to me each day.