Harmony

Raising kids mostly focuses on trying to keep them from killing each other for the first 18 years of their lives. The firstborn lives in relative peace until sibling (in this case) #2 and #3 comes along. Soon the halls ring out: "He touched me!" "She's hitting me!" "He started it!" It's a bone-wearying, patience-trying, my-will-against-a-ten-year-old's test of endurance from start to finish.

What surprised me the most about raising kids was the fact that they are born wanting to do the exact opposite of what you want them to do--which is, of course, the right thing, the compassionate thing, the polite thing. Their first words are "NO!", followed by "MINE!" It takes almost 18 years to teach them to say civilized words like, "Please" and "Thank you" and "You're welcome".

I didn't have a lot of experience with babies growing up--I didn't do much babysitting, and truth be told, didn't much like kids. So when I had my first child, I felt fairly unprepared for what was to come. They didn't come with user manuals, and my first child was born in Nicaragua, far away from my support system--my mom and sister and grandmother.

Now that my parenting days are (mostly) over, when I think back on those years, they seem like a blur. I'm sure I'm not the only parent that wonders where the time went. How many times did I change a diaper, flip a pancake, wipe a nose, pop in a binky, or drive a carpool and think those days would never end? And then, abruptly, they do.

And here's the most surprising thing about having grown-up kids: After all the times I worried and fretted and paced and prayed like crazy, it turns out. . .They LIKE each other! They are polite! I would choose them as friends!

Who woulda thunk it? Thank God!

"How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!" Psalm 133:1