The Things Children are Teaching Me

These days whenever I’m at the dairy for any reason, I make up an excuse to enter my sister’s house. The second the door opens, both heads of the little resident explorers whip around. 2 sets of big blue eyes watch my face expectantly. And as soon as I acknowledge my little nephews, 1 little dimple pops out on 2 sets of chubby cheeks and 2 mostly toothless grins respond.

The twins are at such a delightful stage. They are interactive and quite friendly. They’ve figured out how to army crawl and can zone in on a cup of coffee or a cell phone at lightning speed.

Uriah usually leads the inchworm expedition and nothing is safe anymore. Somehow chubby hands find their way thru the bars that are carefully guarding the few plants that survived Jul’s plant purge.

Or the duos favorite new game, inching along throw taunting looks over their shoulders, daring me to try to catch them and give them the tickling they deserve. The belly laughs that follow is the best medicine.

There’s so much I can’t wait to see them learn. In my minds eye I can see our first kickball game, or bike ride. I can’t wait til they read me a story, or to watch them perform at a school play. I hope I’m invited to piano recitals and that I get a detailed account when they win at Bible trivia. I want to be introduced to pet frogs, baby calves, friends, and girlfriends. And I intend to hang on for dear life when they buy a new car and give Aunt Ken a ride.

They have everything ahead of them to learn. And yet, they are teaching me.

I noticed I had a missed call and a voicemail. The message was not was I was expecting.

“KENDRA!” Shouted a high pitch little voice “this is Wyatt! I hear you’re going to be chopping corn at Pa’s tomorrow and I want to come ride. I’ll be there at 2:00. Ok see ya then, umm bye.”

Two o’clock was actually more like 9 am. My buddy beat me to the field and was riding with his uncle before I arrived on scene. I took over cutting and he took over the buddy seat and the fun began.

“This is a big field” he said, “but Pa has another one just as big. I wonder what would happen if you had a chopper head big enough to cut this whole field at once. Where does the corn go after it goes into the chopper? Why do the back wheels turn on this, but the front wheels turn on the tractor? Do you think you’ll get married? I probably will, but I don’t know. I know how to spell my name W-Y-A-T-T.”

Conversation flowed easily with my 5 yr old friend. I told him about the deer that had ran in front of my tractor the night before and how I’d almost hit them. “And then they could’ve gone to Heaven” he said. “No that’s not right” he added “we know deer don’t go to Heaven.” He was quiet after this and I wondered what was going through his little mind. This summer, one of his best buds- a cousin went home to Heaven suddenly.

“I shot a dove with my slingshot” he changed the subject.

“Did it die?”

Laughter erupted from beside me “EVERYONE asks me that! Of course it died.”

And so the conversation continued.

Sweet little man. Five years of learning under his belt, yet still so far to go.

But instead he’s teaching me.

These boys are teaching me similar lessons, in their innocent way: Life lessons that can easily be forgotten in the middle of living. They know nothing of health issues, or financial strain, or unanswered prayer requests. Instead their days are full of complete trust and confidence that everything will be ok.

Their lives are filled with joy. (Except when someone walks past Isaiah without picking him up-heartbreak hotel) And that joy spills over affects everybody around.

Their lives are filled with peace. They are oblivious to the mask power struggle that’s inhaling our world. Or all the political drama. Or the race war. Again their days are filled with confidence- someone bigger will take care of things. It will be ok.

Matt 18: 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Blessings,

Kendra

Bonus pics:

I had a first on a trip to PA recently- the door got left open and I heard something scramble in. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered Billy the Kid rooting through packages under a seat 🤷🏻‍♀️

Cousin Laura got married last weekend. Such a beautiful celebration! God bless you, Laura and Chad

With harvest super hectic right now, I’m not seeing much out of my Ben friend. I did manage to catch supper in the field and a spectator sunset recently tho.