Little Hands

there is something amazing about our children's hands.  i find it remarkable how one can have several children and each of their features be so different.  i look at reese's hands and see that they are thinner and longer.  her nail bed is sweet and cute....except from where she has bitten and broken them.  i look at maddox's and see that they are small and quick.  he's constantly using them to express himself.  zane's hands are much like his feet...bricks.  they are practically square.  a flinstone could have been one of his ancestors.  when he was first born, we called him a boxer because his eyes were puffy and he had huge hands!  echo's sweet hands are darker, thin and long.

yes, each one of us has our own special "something".  our hands are uniquely designed.  

maddox came to me a couple of weeks ago and told me that some of the kids at school said he had small hands.  without even thinking, i replied, "well, maddox, you do have small hands.  i love your small hands!"  and at that, grabbed them and began to pretend to eat on them and nibble them.  he did not like my answer at all and i could see this was something that he was not real happy to hear.  as he spoke to me about his hands and what others had said, i began to think back to when his hands were so, so tiny.  born at only 4 lbs 11 oz, you can imagine how tiny his little hands once were!  

as he spoke, it began to sink in how troubling this was for him.  he wanted to know how to grow his hands.  as if there is some sort of secret hand growth serum that i knew about.  keep in mind, maddox is about a head shorter than most, if not all, of his classmates.  he's a half-pint compared to the rest of his class.  and it doesn't really help that his birthday is a late June birthday, which puts him at a younger age.  with that said, he has one of the biggest personalities i've seen.  he befriends anyone and everyone.  his teachers comment on his quick wit and joy for life.

i covered my words quickly by telling maddox of all the things that he had to be so proud of.  what he lacked in size, he more than made up for in wit, perseverance, social capability, warmth, knowledge...the list was endless.  okay, i am his mother so i'm biased, but seriously, this kid has a lot going for him! i tried to tell maddox to focus on the things he does well, the things he can do, the things he enjoys doing.  i told him to focus his eyes on all of the things that matter.  his hands will catch up one day, they are just taking time to grow.

he halfway took this answer and ran off to play.  i have no idea what he understood from my "pow-wow talk" but i'm hoping some of it sank in.  

i could not help but think about how we often focus on the things that we can't do.  we look at what others are doing around us or the things that they have or what they do well.  we measure and compare ourselves to what we think we are supposed to be.  and this is so far from what we are meant to be doing!  if maddox could focus on his gifts rather than his inadequesies, he would never feel less than his best.  it's the same for us.  

i wish that maddox could see himself the way that i see him.  i wish that he could see his own strength, his immeasurable amounts of possibilities.  don't we all want that for our children?  for them to see themselves for who they are?  we don't want them to focus on the things they can't do, because there is so much more that they CAN do!  

and if maddox only knew how much i loved his little hands.  how precious and perfect they are.  if he could see them the way that i see them, then he would know that they are fantastically adorable and perfect.  

it constantly amazes me, as a parent, to realize that the love for our children continues to grow deeper and stronger as they get older.  and i seriously think, that after we give birth or take a child into our home, we are given a new upgrade of a heart.  i think that, as parents, we get a special "touch" from God within our hearts.  i think that we get a little piece of God's heart put into our own.  we get new love and new eyes within us to see the beauty and potential in our children.  we get a true touch of unconditional love.  whatever amount of love we have for our children, God has an unfathomable amount more for us as His children.  i've spoken with a few people about their faith who say that they came to faith in God after the birth of their child.  it's like we have a new awakening after watching the miracle of a child.  it's like our eyes are open....ohhhh, this is how God sees me!  (and maybe we feel the need to get down and dirty with prayer to keep us afloat while raising these tiny beings!)

like a parent, God desperately wants us to see ourselves for who we are and focus on the things we can do, the things we excel in, the things we love....rather than our inadequacies.  i'm sure it ticks Him off when a nay-sayer comes up to any of His children and tells us what we can't do or makes fun of something that doesn't seem normal, whatever normal is.

maddox, one day you will be a grown man.  you will have big hands, big feet, and a whole lot of big going on all over.  you could even be bald and hairy like your dad so be careful what you wish for!  you'll have multiplied your weight by at least 5!  i know you can't image it, but it will happen.  probably quicker than i want it to.  and my prayer is that you continue to have a big sense of humor, a big heart, a big outlook on life, a big mind and most importantly, a big faith in your Heavenly Father.  your little hands will catch up.  i promise.

"God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.  Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen."   1 Peter 4:10-11