What remains...

Looking at Swink3’s legs one would think that he is beaten daily with a stick from the knees down; at last count there were 11 bruises, scraps, cuts, or other “booboos.” These wounds will heal and be replaced by new ones; what will remain?

Looking at Swink4’s sweet adorable face at 5:30 in the evening it appears as though she has been eating dirt all day – and she probably has. Once she is in the shower the streaks of grime run off her face and down the drain; what will remain?

Looking at Swink5’s little chunky knees it looks like she may have been kneeling on sandpaper and her belly is red – evidence of her low crawling through the house. Once she grows and begins to walk the redness and roughness will begin to fade; what will remain?

I pray that what remains for our children is perseverance, determination, an over-whelming sense of love and childhood happiness. The important part isn’t how banged up your legs get; it’s the fact that you got back on the bicycle after a fall, the fact that you weren’t afraid to try climbing a tree (or onto a roof for that matter), that you spent the day climbing over rocks at the beach in search of hermit crabs. It doesn’t matter that your clothes got filthy and stained, your hair was stringy and tangled or that you weren’t always perfectly groomed. The important part is that your imagination is wild, you know how dirt feels running between your fingers and toes, you can find a treasure that has been hidden (for the 10^th time), and how you know what outside smells like. The things that remain will be memories as you grow and seek your way in this world. It will be knowing that you can try again and probably succeed. It will be knowing that you are dearly loved by your parents and by God.  It will be a sense of joy that pervades your life.  

What remains is what we are made of.