The Nursery
On my way to class this week, I noticed a couple of parent standing right outside the nursery door. They were close enough to listen, but not close enough to be seen. I told them they needed to walk a way. One responded, "But she is crying." I told her that it would be a growing experience for both of them.
I started reflecting upon my days standing at that door. I remember the sleepless nights as our children stood in their cribs crying because they did not want to fall asleep alone. The first days of school. The first overnight camp outs. The first time a friend moved away or they found out a friend really was not a friend. The first challenging class. The first break up. The first missed opportunity. The first time expectations were not met, whether in a try-out, a vacation, a book, a car, a date or what ever life brings them.
Sometimes there will be tears, sometimes there were be frustration, sometimes there will be doubt, sometimes it will be fear, but both of us, our children and ourselves, grow from the experience. It does not change.
I am can guarantee sending them to college, on missions, to their spouses, the hospital to have children, or watching them experience the same things will their children will be no different than that first time we dropped them off at the nursery. It is all part of life.
As I pondered that thought, I wonder how our Father in Heaven does it. Does he go through these emotions a billion times over? Does it get any easier for each child? Does he stand outside the door and listen? I am sure he does. And you know what, he will be there when nursery is over. Together we will grow and learn from the experience. Each one of us will have a different experience in the same little room, but come out to the same place, the same growth, and the same potential. We just have to make it to the end.
I started reflecting upon my days standing at that door. I remember the sleepless nights as our children stood in their cribs crying because they did not want to fall asleep alone. The first days of school. The first overnight camp outs. The first time a friend moved away or they found out a friend really was not a friend. The first challenging class. The first break up. The first missed opportunity. The first time expectations were not met, whether in a try-out, a vacation, a book, a car, a date or what ever life brings them.
Sometimes there will be tears, sometimes there were be frustration, sometimes there will be doubt, sometimes it will be fear, but both of us, our children and ourselves, grow from the experience. It does not change.
I am can guarantee sending them to college, on missions, to their spouses, the hospital to have children, or watching them experience the same things will their children will be no different than that first time we dropped them off at the nursery. It is all part of life.
As I pondered that thought, I wonder how our Father in Heaven does it. Does he go through these emotions a billion times over? Does it get any easier for each child? Does he stand outside the door and listen? I am sure he does. And you know what, he will be there when nursery is over. Together we will grow and learn from the experience. Each one of us will have a different experience in the same little room, but come out to the same place, the same growth, and the same potential. We just have to make it to the end.
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