The Tenderness of Sons

I wanted to briefly add this little story about two of my sons. Sometimes you see such tender moments that they themselves orchestrate...

On Sunday evening in church, Eric tentatively came up to me in the pew and quietly told me that he wanted to sit with a certain elderly lady in the congregation. He told me, "She is just such a nice lady and I think it would make her happy if she had a kid sit beside her. Otherwise she's kind of lonely." This is the same lady who often gives our children a few candies now and then. She is not very easy to understand and essentially our relationship with this lady has thus far been confined to Sundays. So we let Eric sit with her and I am sure it completely made her day. She was beaming! I'm proud of my son to recognize how important it is to have relationships with the people within our congregation. At night he also thinks of different people to pray for. After the service he asked if he could go out the back so that he could shake the minister's hand. Again, yes. I am thankful for the relationship my children have with the minister and his wife.

Paul has also been so sweet lately. Yesterday he walked around in church pants, his church vest (under a muscle shirt) and his tie. He was playing church. He dressed up a whole bunch of animals for the service. He showed me his monkey and informed me that he was sure that Monkey would be good during the service because Monkey was promised a piece of pie with ice cream on it if he was good. It just sounded so...fatherly:-) Later when Courtney had a dirty diaper it was Paul who wanted to change Courtney. I let him and he was so sweet. He did not shy away, nor did he pull a face. He did the job (with some assisstance) and gently talked to his baby sister the whole time. He is going to be an amazing father one day. It makes this momma's heart melt to see tenderness in her sons. I think it is such an important quality for men to possess.