How To Build a Boat

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.  ~Leo Buscaglia

To me, parenting and mothering, in particular, is a never-ending, always-winding string of touches, smiles, kind words, listening ears, honest compliments, and small acts of caring...that don't often feel, in and of themselves at the time of their execution, like life turnarounds.

Sunday last was a good day to remind me how wrong I am.

This is Elijah.

This is Elijah's daddy.

This is Elijah's daddy baptizing him.

This was a day when the little came 'round to the big: a big decision from a big boy lived out in the hands of a big guy, both honoring a big, big God.

It was a day that turned our firstborn son's life in direction anew. It was a marker of "before" and "after". It was his day, a reminder that though children come from us, they are separate from us. They must go their own way while we stand on the docks, watching them set sail...

 and remember how our touches, our smiles, our listening ears, honest compliments, and small acts of caring have, in fact, built their boats and carved their oars and steered their rudders.

Yeah.

Did I mention it was a good day?