Oceans of Love

A sleep-eyed blonde headed seven years old interrupted my sleep early this morning. She tearfully explained that in her dream a deep dark ocean full of sharks had surrounded her. I wrapped my arms around her and told her it was only a dream.  After I got my barring and the burgers out of my eyes we went to the kitchen for some toast and hot cocoa. In my mind as we descended the stairs together I thought of her life and all those real “sharks” and “dark oceans” she will see. As her parent with Christian beliefs I have taught her about God’s unconditional love. His grace and wisdom.  Will it be enough to battle these sharks? She starts second grade in a week. I think of how she will handle rejection. I wonder how she will handle herself when asked to leave some else out of the kick ball game. With grace and kindness? I pray so. Have you heard some of those boys? They are ruthless. Did I mention they are smelly? They can swarm and draw blood with their words.  Will she try out some hurtful words or have patience and charity? Everyday she has the chance to choose Christ. When I held her in my arms years ago I knew these days of sweet innocence were numbered. I hope we have a few more. While we finished our toast I held her close to me. Her hair surrounding her face and smelling of chorine from our swim the night before. She grabbed my face with her hands, her mouth full of toast, and gave me what we call a nose kiss. You get nose to nose and rub noses back and forth. She told me that she loved me too much to help clean up. Cleaver. She got that phrase from one of my parenting bibles “Parenting with love and logic    “. One of the suggestions in this book is that when a child argues with a parent, the parent needs to say with sincerity “ I love you to much to argue”. I guess I must say this a lot during the day. It’s nice to see that some of the tools of this book are paying off. Maybe when the sharks of second grade gather in the deep ocean of the “plays ground” she will respond with “ I love you too much to argue” or “ I love you too much to help”. Could be a good thing could be a bad thing. I will continue praying for good.  

Just a taste of what I sent to Kansas City Star Sunday Faith Column, it was never published. I will keep trying though. What do you think? I really enjoy writing its one of my favorite outlets.