We were recently on vacation with my entire family. While there I had the pleasure of spending time with the little kids. The youngest was three weeks old, one was nine months and the others were three and up. It was interesting to me to remember back when my kids were that little and all the many milestones they encountered simply in their first year of life. My youngest nephew slept, ate, slept, ate and slept some more. He was adorable. My other nephew at nine months was crawling around trying to put everything in his mouth. The older kids were playing with him and he loved the attention, but he also loved just exploring. He was definitely no longer a baby, yet, he was just a baby.
On one such day, while both younger kids were taking naps, I stayed with all the kids so they could play and not have to go to any certain destination. I enjoyed some quiet time doing puzzles as all the older kids played house in one room and I was in another. My kids were teaching the other kids how to act and what to do. The younger kids followed suit. It was an enjoyable time indeed. I remember looking at the little baby and thinking, you know, this little guy doesn’t do much but everything his mom and dad do for him is vital to his survival. Shortly after, the nine month old woke up and was so happy when we went to get him because he was well rested. He had done what his body needed and now he was ready to conquer the world of playing.
All the exploring, reaching, digging, banging and falling is not only play for a kid, it’s work. They are having to use parts of their brains to explore new things they have never experienced before. Each time they try to walk it strengthens their muscles and helps to prepare them for their next adventure. It’s not all happy times either. Oh, no. They fall many times and they tend to cry and get a little unhappy at times, too. Like these precious little boys, we are still growing up daily. We have our days of needing rest, days of playing and days of crawling/working.
How many times have you ever looked at your life and wondered, is this it? All I do is get up, eat, go to work, help the kids, eat and sleep. You wake up day after day and do the same thing. Seems pretty useless sometimes, but it’s important to your co-workers that you show up. It’s important to your kids that you acknowledge their latest Play-doh invention or dress the doll is wearing. Does this sound familiar?
What we have to remember is that every day we have work to do. We must strengthen our muscles and work on the next task in our lives. Each task we do should continue to point us to our life’s purpose: to live for God. So, like a nine-month-old who is crawling and on the verge of walking, we must work through the frustrations of exploring, reaching, digging, banging and falling. Through these experiences we will learn to walk like a baby.
© 2012 Susan M. Sims
Image courtesy of Ambro at freedigitalphotos.net
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