One Year Lessons

Written by Jon Wood

One year. 365 Days. 8,760 hours. 525,600 minutes. 31,536,000 seconds.

Either way you break it down; there just isn’t enough time to spend with your child in the first year of their life. From the first poo to the teething process, every day we have to spend with our children is a gift that continues to give.

I know. That sounds too cliché. Too rehearsed. However, I’m finding that the lessons I’m learning are just as much a gift as the time I spend with her because they make me grow. I’ve always found it amazing how so many people will tell you how important it is to teach your children lessons and never make mention of the lessons their children have taught them. Oh sure, we’ve taught her not to pull the cat’s tail (which is still a work in progress). We’ve helped her learn how to fall asleep on her own. We have even repeated the words “mama” and “dada” so many times she can easily recite them to us with the understanding of who’s who.

As I write that out, however, I’m beginning to wonder if what she’s taught us might be just as important if not even more. So, as I look back over the past year, here are a couple of thoughts that have been etched in the ol’ cranium:

1)       Being able to receive affection is just as important as being able to give it.

It seems so easy to give those we care about our affection. A hug to remind them we’re there. A pat on the back to congratulate them for an accomplishment. It’s far harder, at least for me, to receive affection from someone else. Case in point, my daughter tried to hand me a dust bunny she found on the floor. I didn’t need the dust bunny, so it made sense to say “Don’t play with that” and take it away from her. It wasn’t until she handed me the second one that I realized it wasn’t really about the dust bunny, because as soon as I took it in my hand, she crawled into my lap to look at it with me. She created a moment to be remembered because of her affection. I don’t want to EVER miss a moment like that!

2)       My daughter is a lot smarter than my phone.

Don’t get me wrong, I love electronics and think the smartphone is pretty incredible. Yet my phone does not possess the one thing that can make all the difference in life that my girl knows all about: a desire to learn. It doesn’t matter what it is, she’s constantly showing my wife and me the importance of continually exploring the world that God has created around us. He gave us the responsibility to care for it, and you care for things best when you spend time getting to know them.

3)       Falling down in life isn’t so bad.

I’m a worrier by nature; I always have been. So when I see my girl fall on her rump while trying to learn to walk, I immediately react by nearly stumbling over everything between us in an attempt to catch her. Yet, it seems every time she falls down she smiles that toothless grin as if to say, “Oh dad, this isn’t the first or the last time!” At almost eleven months old, she has already learned a very important lesson: falling is inevitable. It’s how we respond to the fall that will determine our outlook in life.

So, no matter how you keep track of your time, remember the prayer of Moses, “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom” (Psalm 90:12, NLT).