So when you buy a house that’s 85 years old, it’s inevitable that you will spend a good portion of the first few years fixing, replacing, or renovating stuff. The joy in it being that you can retain the charm of the past yet make the place your own via updates. Hubby and I are in our third year of owning our home (built in the 1930’s) and just like the previous two years, we’ve recently been doing some renovations. A little over two months ago, we had some windows replaced and got a new entry door. It’s a pretty cool door if I do say so myself, complete with an arched window made of leaded glass and cherry red paint (because every front door should be red, right?) I certainly love our new door but there’s someone else in our home who seems completely taken by it.Every time we open the door and my daughter, MaKayla, sees the pristine, bright red color…she screams out, “PWETTY!!”
And when I say every time…I mean every. single. time.
The first day she saw it, “PWETTY!”
The second day she saw it, “PWETTY!”
Three weeks later, “PWETTY!”
Two months later, “PWETTY!
Each day we step out the door, my baby girl notices the beautiful red door. After a while, it had started to wear on me. I found myself saying in the driest of voices, “Yes, Kayla. It’s pretty. Uh huh. Pretty.” Her response to my pacification? With just as much enthusiasm as the first time, “Mommy…PWETTY!”
Then, of course, God intervened.
“Are you too busy, too distracted to acknowledge beauty EVERY time you see it?
Uhh…
“Is there not value in being present enough to see the wonders before you…even if they are the same wonders you’ve seen over and over again? In fact, Isn’t that not wonderful in and of itself?”
*drops head*
I tell you, if there is one thing I’ve learned about being a mother it’s that my child is not just a reflection of me…an elevated version of myself and her dad, as I like to say. She is often the vessel through which God will reveal where I’ve gotten WAY off track. That is, IF I’m paying attention.So now when I step outside the door, I say, “Look Kayla, PWETTY!”
And of course, now that I got the lesson, she shrugs and points at a butterfly. LOL!
How has God used your children to show you yourself?
* * *
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[Photo credit: The Secret of the Red Door, by theflickerees]
Tracey Michae'l
Tracey Michae'l is a writer and educator based out of the Philadelphia area. She is a wife to William and a mother to a beautiful two-year old little girl. You can find her on the web at www.traceymlewis.com.
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This was beautiful! I appreciate the outdoors a little more due to Johanna. Just running through the grass is pure heaven on Earth to her and while I’m still looking around for icky bugs that may get on me, I enjoy the beauty she sees in nature.
I feel you, La Dale. I so enjoy watching the world unfold through my daughter’s eyes. Her excitement about every new discovery moves me.
I used to get all excited about the fact that Damon looked so much like my side of the family. Pictures of my deceased father and brother have many features of him in them. God showed my that not only does he look like us but there is some “stuff” we passed along to him that does not merit celebration but prayer to change weight of our generational baggage on him. So as my stuff crops up in him from time to time I must extend grace to him that was extended to me. He is however, very funny and able to make you laugh at the drop if a hat.