Saturday, November 12, 2011

I Used to Know A Lot of Things


I used to think I knew a lot of things. Enough important things to fill the Epcot Center Globe at Disney.

















Things, I thought, nobody else knew--things that people were just waiting to read in my book titled "All Things You Could Possibly Want To Know In The Universe."








Then when I got married and started having kids, that book slowly condensed over the years to the length of the Copy Right sentence: "There's Really Just One Thing I Know About And Here It Is..."










I thought I knew all about the love of God, but then I became a mom and a wife.

















And I realized there is nothing quite as spectacular as the miracle of a child's/parent's/spouse's unconditional love.















To share life with a spouse whom you continually choose to love is a miracle.











It's easy to unconditionally love your kid. Especially when she's ready to meet THE Princess Belle for the first time ever!!











And when both of them are smiling and happy and cute and their clothes are clean and they are so grateful to you for taking them to Disney World...











But then that loving gets a little inconvenient at times...

especially when it's 90 degrees and we've just waited for an hour to meet Rapunzel.















Or when kids start to get tired and don't want to wear their crown or Mickey Ears or their clothes or stay in the backpack or walk on the ground anymore.














But even when love becomes inconvenient or tiring or a bit more self-less than we initially signed up for...










...God has given us the Big Unconditional Never Stopping Love to get us through those sleepless nights or the fever-pitch screaming in the line of "It's A Small World".








And like childbirth, you tend to forget the tough times when you get to kiss little cheeks like these.












A little laughing always helps, too.

















All those things I previously thought I knew so much about (marriage, parenting, health, church, friendships, relationships, blah blah blah) began to pale in comparison to the ONE thing I've learned in the past (almost) ten years of marriage and parenting.















Love is a big deal.












Loving God, loving others, loving Mickey.












So while I know far less than I used to, I believe I've come to learn more about the One Thing that could affect and change our lives forever.














And I'd like to thank my husband and kids for helping me learn that.