Lessons From the First Year

Miss.SingSong has turned one, and I've been reflecting on this past year.  Parenting Miss.SingSong has opened my eyes so much to understand better my relationship with Heavenly Father.  I'm lucky to have such an easy and content baby, and I hope that Heavenly Father sees me as being easily entreated, also.



One of the early experiences with Miss.SingSong that really changed the way I pray was when she would do tummy-time and just cry and scream.  I could tell early on by the way she would look around at everything that she really wanted to be able to move and explore, but she wasn't strong enough.  I knew that tummy-time would help her build that strength.  But she hated it.  I was always right by her, speaking gentle encouragement and love.  Often I would stroke her hair or her arm.  She would often scream so loudly that I doubt she could hear me.  Usually before she had been on the floor for the full recommended time I would pick her up and give her hugs.

I think about the way I pray when I'm in a difficult trial, the benefits of which I can't understand.  Do I pause to listen to know how near He is?  Do I beg the Lord to end the trial sooner, and maybe lose out on some growth opportunity that could otherwise be mine?  Do I thank Him for loving me enough to want me to become like Him?

Miss.SingSong also loves to climb and crawl over everything, but she's really too small to get up on anything.  It's so cute to watch her try so hard to climb up onto the sofa, lifting her little legs nowhere near high enough.  She can't even stand tall enough to reach the top of my bed when she's "helping" me make my bed in the mornings.  But when she wants to be on the bed so bad, because she knows that I am up there, she will stand at the foot of the bed reaching and crying with all of her might.  I can't help but have compassion on her when she wants to be with me that much.  And so I reach down and lift her up to be with me.  I can't help but think of how the Savior lifts me, and how I need to be reaching and crying with all of my might.

There are a multitude of times every week when Miss.SingSong gets a little unstable in all of her climbing and crawling so I just put out a hand to help and she doesn't even notice, but continues with what she's doing.  I can't help but pray during those moments that my eyes will be opened to the Lord's hand in my life.

I am so grateful for this blessing of being a parent.  I am more and more grateful every day for my earthly and my heavenly parents who have done and are doing so much for me.  I'm looking forward to what I get to learn this year, and feel that I can only be grateful for the trials that my Father in Heaven will suffer me to pass through.