Of course, I knew he was a boy. I dressed him in blue and we played trains and trucks and read books about reptiles. But up until that day I had always just considered him my baby. My sweet little baby.
Fast forward a few years and his older sister was already 6 and she was into dress up and princesses and everything pink.
He was four and we were walking downtown Chicago when we came to the water tower on Michigan avenue which looks like a castle.
We were holding hands and I said, “Oh, look at the castle! I wonder if we can see the princess up there?”
Eyeing me as if I were nuts he exclaimed, “What princess? I’m searching for the dragon!”
That was when I first realized it. He was a boy. All boy. My boy; and He was going to see things differently than me.
Therefore I needed to teach him and train him and relate to him in a completely new way than I did with my daughter. With my girls I know what hurts them and why and how to best help them navigate. I get them. I remember what it was like to be an 8 year old girl, a 12 year old girl, a 16 year old girl. I can answer the questions about why little girls like to daydream about their weddings, why their feelings get hurt easily, why they color in rainbows and flowers.
But my boys? – no idea. My husband gets them. He has the answers to my questions . . because he is a boy. The most burning one being . . .
Why does everything have to be made into a weapon? A stick, a paper towel tube, even a marshmallow, as soft as that is, becomes a bullet when you have a couple of sticks and a rubber band.
Why are they always always hungry? And how many arm pit farts can you really do in a row?
I knew after that short conversation in Chicago that he was going to hear the things I said differently; see the things I saw through a different filter.
When I don’t get it–how to relate, what to say, what to do, this is the verse I turned to then and the verse I turn to now.
“Trust in the Lord with your whole heart; and do not lean on your own understanding.”
In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Because even when everything changes around you, the Word is constant. Never changing. Always true.
And for those times when I still mess up,
“God gives grace to the humble…”
James 4:6
