My little boy's birthday - I still loathe toads, worms, and dirt, but love him!

If you've been reading a while, you may remember my post from just a few weeks ago when we celebrated our daughter's birthday. I wasn't kidding when I said there's a lot of birthday goodness going on in this joint - it's now time to celebrate our son's. Instead of pouring over his birth story, all of the cute things he does and funny things he says (though I'd sure like to), I want to reflect on how I've seen grace - amazing grace - just by his very existence. 

I always thought it would be nice to have a son and a daughter; of course, being a girly girl myself, I knew exactly what I'd do with a daughter - lavish her in pink from the moment she was born and then we'd play Barbies together until the end of time. Having a boy was kind of a stumper, though. I knew I wanted one, but what on earth was I going to do with one? You see, I loathe toads...and worms...and dirt. Are we understanding each other? When the nurse handed me my swaddled, bright-eyed, round-headed baby boy in the labor and delivery room, though, I knew exactly what I was going to do with him. - what I had to do with him. 

As his mom and the first woman that he knows, it's my responsibility to teach him - as best I can - to be a lover of the Lord. It's my job to help him understand that being a brave, courageous, pure-hearted, faith-filled man someday is better than any power job or amount of muscle or number of cars in the garage. He must realize that it will be his job, hopefully, someday to provide for his family, love and protect his wife and to be a Christlike servant to others - all while glorifying God. It's also my duty to show him (hopefully more often than not) the attributes God desires from a virtuous woman - he'll need to recognize those someday when he seeks a wife. Most importantly, it's my job to teach him to look to Christ no matter what. So, while he and I do have fun playing with cars, reading books, and watching movies, those are really the little things. My duty to him as well as our daughters, goes much further than the world's view of what girls and boys need. I pray that God is glorified in our house each and every day as we all attempt to be the men and women God created us to be. Moreover, I pray that we rest in Him when we don't have the answers on what to do with these little ones. As we all know, they don't come with instructions.

Happy birthday, my sweet boy. I'm thankful for another year with you and humbled by your very existence.