There have been days, recently in fact, when my wife and I have been so unbelievably frustrated with the constant bickering and arguing, that we end up sending them to their rooms.
It’s frustrating.
It’s exhausting.
It seems like it’s never-ending.
It feels hopeless.
And sometimes, it’s just plain sad that they can’t figure out how to get along!
But then, like a ray of sunshine through gray clouds, there are times when they choose to love each other. That happened last night…
We were upstairs tucking our little boys into bed when we heard loud crying coming from downstairs. Allow me to re-phrase that- we were upstairs tucking the boys into bed when we heard loud wailing coming from downstairs!
I rushed downstairs to find my 11-year old daughter, Carmen, lying on her bedroom floor, clutching her right leg, reeling in pain. On her big toe was a medium-sized gash. My 10-year old daughter, Jaala, was standing over her asking the same questions I had begun to ask- “What happened?” and “How can I help?”
Carmen likes to do cartwheels, when it’s bedtime, instead of going to bed. She’s been warned, but she continues to do this. This time, however, she cartwheeled too close to the end of her bed. And the bed won. Big time! How ironic.
As any good dad would do, I stuffed the irritation of her disobedience down and adopted compassion into my demeanor. I scooped her up in my arms and carried her to the kitchen. And that’s when my heart was moved.
Speaking gently and with care, Jaala tended to the wound on Carmen’s big toe. She carefully opened a tiny first-aid kit she had made in Girl Scouts and began to peel open bandaids. When Carmen winced in pain from the hydrogen peroxide, Jaala was right next to her speaking calmly and gently- “It’s okay Carmen, we’re going to take care of this! The pain won’t last long, I promise.”
I’m getting misty-eyed just typing it!
As they trotted off to bed (well, limped, in Carmen’s case!), I stood and recounted to my wife what had just happened. I really had to fight back tears as I explained. 🙂
Heres’ what I was reminded of- love wins! No matter how bad the fighting gets between my two girls, love wins. Love conquers everything. At the end of the longest day, through the darkest night, love wins. And when I see my children love each other, there is no greater joy! It cancels out any irritation I may have over the seemingly endless fighting!
Have you seen your children love each other recently? How did it make you feel as a parent?