Fridays=family time and so on this Friday, I can’t help but think of my sweet family and all that they mean to me. I have three children ages 8, almost 7, and almost 4. Truly, they are a bundle of delight. I don’t know how I got so lucky to receive these three special gifts from my Father in Heaven. Their personalities amaze me and their valiance leaves me in awe.
But I have a problem. You see, no matter how hard I try, they keep growing up.
The change is almost imperceptible in the days, but when you look back at a picture or video from even just a year ago, the change is drastic. I hardly notice it happening, but it happens in the blink of an eye.
My mother used to give me “stay-little pills” and I just recently heard from my Grandfather that he used to give my mother “stay-little pills.” Apparently, they don’t work, because I keep trying them on my own children to no avail.
In my mind, I know they need to grow up and experience all the beauty that life has to offer. I want them to have all the joy I have. But still my heart cries out, “Please, just never grow up!”
With each passing day, they bring me more and more joy. Their personalities are emerging and blossoming in such delightful ways. Every year brings me blessings unimaginable. So naturally, I love to see them grow up and learn new things and become this wonderfully unique and capable little human being. But at the very same time, I want to cradle their faces in my hands and freeze time just exactly as it is now. {Don’t even get me started on the heart-wrenching feelings that emerge when I look at their little toddler pictures…}
Oh this growing up business is not for the faint of heart. It’s ever so bittersweet as a mother.
Maybe tomorrow, sweet children, you can grow older…but not today.
Stay little…just for today…
