Children and Parents

I watched my four-year-old great grandson disobey his mother, then run across the room to hug her neck.  I never got to do that with my mother when I was four.  I’ve been watching him play soccer on Saturday mornings, and now basketball.  In both sports his Daddy is his coach.  I never had that privilege when I was four. When I was two, until when I was five, my mother was in a Sanitarium in west Texas with tuberculosis and my father was an Army Chaplain in Germany, during World War 2. I spent those years with my grandparents in Bellmead, Texas. My grandmother seldom left the house and my grandfather worked long hours six days per week. He owned a grocery store, a gas station, and served as the first Postmaster of Bellmead. He also owned a few rental properties.  But Sunday belonged to me.  We attended his church, Central Christian Church in Waco, then spent the rest of the day watching the passenger trains go through at the Katy Depot and the Cotton Belt Depot (they were one block apart).  During the summer months we’d go to Katy Park to watch the Waco Pirates of the Big State League play baseball. Those were not bad years.  They were just difficult years.  Child Psychologist would probably have a label for kids like me, but I survived. So, I say to my granddaughter and grand-son-in-law, and actually to all young parents,  “Allow your children to express their love for you.”  It’s not a privilege every child enjoys. Remember, “children are a gift of the Lord. (Psalm 127:3, NASB).