Lesson #2 in semantics

Another tale of semantics concerning Anibel...
Last night, as we were getting ready for bed, Anibel came into our room and with all the heart felt adoration she could muster said, "Mom and Dad, I really really love you, cause I have to."


We both stiffled our laughter, knowing that she believed herself to have said something really kind. How do I put in four year old terms the complexity of motivation, duty, and blessing others?

It is like Chris giving me roses and when I say thank you he says, "Just doing my duty."
As I encounter all these so called 'lessons,' I am learning more and more how complex our communication is and why kids are so often confused and mistaken.

DIrections

This blog has taken interesting turns and now stands at a cross roads. It began a few months ago as a simple challenge to work my writing brain once again. It very soon thereafter turned into a thought sharing on daily life/update on my family blog and now I see it becoming more of an online journal. How interesting it is to watch our natural tendencies play out before our eyes without any conscious thought to it. But I don't want it to be a journal. Nor do I want it to be thought sharing time from Alyssa'a perspective (though it will inherant be this by manner of its creator). I don't know what I want...but my original intention was to diving into my creative brain that seems to have gone dormant during the last 4 years of child-rearing. To explore writing. To explore words. And within those words to explore the origin of yearning, the meaning of experiences, and those things that struggle to explode from my heart while cruising down the road of everyday life. Very simply, to put in print the realities of life.

Lessons in Futility

1. Taking the scenic route at night.
2. Cleaning a toilet.
3. Bathing little boys.
4. and... trying to sell our house!

These are the moments...

Monday's are date nights. Every monday. And still most weeks one of the kids has a little trouble with us leaving and cries as we work our way out the door.

Yesterday, Bella was the one in tears and descretely in the background I hear Abs say, "Sissy crying. Go help sissy." When I finally peeled her arms from around my neck and set her at the table with Karris, I looked to see where Abs had gone. He was in the livingroom diligently picking up Bell's puzzles and putting them away. These are the moments....

Often I think God just wants my service, my obedience to His rules, my spreading of His name, my giving of our money, etc. None of these things are wrong. And you could argue that is what he does want. But God says he is our father. He too is a parent. And what do I enjoy most from my kids? Their love. Abishai wasn't following the rules, he didn't simple obey a command; he was looking to love his sister. It was the overflow of his heart. And God wants our hearts. He desires us to everyday make Him our first love, not out of duty, because we should or have to or are supposed to. But because we love Him.