OW-ees

Now that Charlie is up and walking, he's starting to get OW-ees. He fell in the driveway the other day and bloodied-up his knee and a few nights ago he got his ankle stuck in the side of his crib. I think he may have been more scared than hurt, but either way, he was very upset.

In thinking about this new stage of his life, I have uncovered two truths. The first is articulated in a song on Charlie's new Signing Time video (which I was ecstatic to find at a yard sale for $20 less than the retail price!): "When you're hurt, you always become better." I had never thought about pain like that before, but it's true. Pain never stays. It may last a little while, but eventually it goes away. This truth applies to nearly every scenario I've been able to come up with--injuries, break-ups, the death of a loved one, etc.

The second truth I uncovered is that as a parent, when Charlie is in pain, I am, too. Watching your child suffer is awful, and we've only begun to scratch the surface of it with our nearly 18-month-old! My application for this truth - if I, who am finite in the extreme, can feel this way about my son when he hurts, how much more does God, who is infinite, feel that way about us when we are hurting? Just another way God uses my son to teach me about Him.