For remembering...

Sometimes I have to blog it just to remember it.
Yesterday I watched Eli at the park with some little kids.He carefully lifted them onto the playground equipment. He 'faked', almost to perfection, to lose as they kicked the ball around with him. There was such happiness in his giggle. Today during our Sacrament meeting, he drew out the grid of dots for which to play the game where we alternate turns, connecting two dots at a time, into lines. We each draw one line, careful so  as not to provide the other person the chance to draw the fourth side of a square. If you complete the square, you mark it with your initials as a point...the person with the most squares wins! It is usually a very easy game with a child...easy to either annihilate them, or manipulate it in their favor. I was trying to pay attention to the speakers, and appease his quiet play...and it proved very difficult. Because HE was trying to help ME win. Finally, when there was nowhere left to go that wouldn't produce a huge domino-effect of squares...he grunted at me and said, 'mom, don't you wanna win me?' It was then that I saw that sweetness in his chocolate eyes again...when he realized we were doing the same thing!
I am SO thankful to see the giant of a man that grows within the tiny walls of his physical body.It gives me perspective in my parenting, usually reminding me to be patient...ask forgiveness...and be better myself. It is my responsibility and great privilege to shape him into a man. And if you're a contemplative person, you will realize the hugeness of this task. Because sadly, I see that most of my children's weaknesses are reflections of my own. And if I haven't mastered it yet, teaching a child to do so seems overwhelming.
There is no greater joy than that of family life. Some days it is so far from what it should be. I love moments like these that prove forward progression!