This boy

This boy is a tender soul. This boy impresses me. Sure, he has his moments. He fights with his brother. He throws tantrums. He yells at me and at others. But he has a sweet heart and is full of faith.

A few months ago, there were severe storms in our area. We had been at Mimi and Pop Pop's house and knew that there was a tornado watch in the area, so we were hurrying to get back home. Sam, who is a very fearful child, was very nervous. I insisted that we would be ok, but I reminded him that if he was scared he could pray. He immediately requested that we say a prayer that there would be no tornadoes in our area and we did. Later when we were home and Nathanael was concerned about a tornado coming, Sam reassured him, "Nate, there's not going to be a tornado in our area. We already prayed about it, and I believe it's going to work."

Some weeks ago, Sam awoke in the middle of the night crying out in pain. He was having growing pains in his leg and he was in agony. My first response was annoyance and an anxious need to quiet him before he woke the whole house. I gave him some Tylenol and he requested that I say a prayer with him that the pain would go away. I did and he immediately settled down and went back to sleep.

Sam can't stand to hear or read bad words; s-t-u-p-i-d, d-u-m-b, those are our bad words and he can't fathom that there are much worse ones out there. One day he came home from school and told me that one of the little girls in his class had said a bad word on the playground. When I inquired, he spelled which of the two it was. Then he reported to me "some kids said I said a bad word." I asked what he had said. "I said dam, like a beaver's dam, and they said that's a bad word, which is crazy." I asked if they had told on him, which of course they had. His teacher then educated him that damn is, indeed, a bad word (or can also be a beaver's dwelling when there's no n). That's probably the first thing he's learned through public education.

In the very early morning hours this past Monday, after having been loose since the last days of February, Sam's first tooth fell out. It was 4:19 AM when he came, crying, into our room lamenting that he had lost his tooth! He couldn't find it! He had dropped it on the carpet. Minutes later, 3 children were awake. That blasted tooth! Paul finally did find it and the tooth fairy came to visit the following night.

I love his innocence. I love that he shields his eyes if something bad or scary comes on tv and calls out "turn it! Bad show!" I know that too soon these little bad words won't be bad to him anymore and will become commonplace in his vocabulary. I know that his mind will lose the innocence it has now. I know he will make bigger mistakes. I hope that he will always recognize the power of prayer and that it will always be his first thought when he is scared, sad, or in need of forgiveness. He is growing up so fast.