Not holding a grudge

After a long walk and playtime outside Sunday afternoon, I kicked my feet up, closed my eyes and (almost) fell asleep after dinner. Even though I was half-sleeping, I heard the hubby and our 19-mo (J) reading Blue Hat Green Hat together. J babbles in "sentences" now and was expressing his concern for the elephant in that book because a similar elephant breaks the clock in this Hickory Dickory Dock video. Oh, how the mind of a 19-mo works! They were having a great time.

Left: shorts (surprise) gifted by AdamAlexMommy! Tks again!

More photos to come on my photography blog

After a few minutes, J decided he was done reading with the hubby and came over to me to get my attention. It was sweet and cute, and who doesn't want to be their child's object of affection/attention? But I was tired, and I really wanted the hubby to just watch him for 30 min while I rested my eyes. So, I ignored J, and when he's ignored, he gets upset and starts crying. And then I got upset because I was tired and didn't want to be bothered. I could have explained to J and the hubby my desire to nap and that I'd be available to play in a few more minute, but instead, I reacted badly and probably even scowled at both of them. J was so upset! I felt so guilty…

The hubby took J upstairs to play.

Thirty minutes later, I went upstairs since it was almost bath time. J was playing with the CD player in the guestroom. When he saw me, he said "Dance" and we danced to the music. And that's when my 19-mo old taught me about humility, forgiveness, and the freedom of not holding a grudge against someone.

If J were me, he would have blown me off when I came into the room.
If J were me, he would have said, "What do you want?"
If J were me, he would have avoided eye contact with me and pretended I wasn't there.

But, thankfully, J isn't me, and he forgot about what happened 30 min earlier and how his mommy was a bad mommy. He didn't hold a grudge. He moved on. He accepted me again. He does it over and over again.

If only I could live my life grudge-free like my son, how freeing would that be?

This is where I get spiritual:

unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven...how many times must I forgive someone? Seven times? No, seventy times seven times

Share your "all I really need to know, I learned from my toddler" moments

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