Delight-full!

One of the most amazing things as I get older, seems to be the way our children have grown up. If you read from daughter Kristy's blog (http://pronetowandercho.blogspot.com/), you can appreciate why I would say that. She quotes one her favorite columnists from World magazine, Andree Seu in a recent article.

"Let your father and your mother be glad,
And let her rejoice who gave birth to you.
Give me your heart, my son,
And let your eyes delight in my ways."
Proverbs 23:25-26

"Delight is the most useless of things. It doesn't get the house clean or the bills paid. Useless—like flowers. Like rainbows. Like Beethoven's Ninth.Delight covers a multitude of parenting shortcomings. You may be too strict or too lenient and still come out all right, if you delight in your children. They will know it, for delight cannot be hidden. It finds excuse to ooze all over the place. It seeks a getaway vacation with the beloved when it's not convenient. It asks different questions than duty. Duty says, "I should." Delight says, "I want to." Duty is efficient. Delight tends to anything but."

Surely, Chuck and I are most blessed to have the most wonderful children and grandchildren ever, including our marriage-acquired children and grands as well, especially since two of them no longer have living parents. I most unabashedly say I truly do delight in all of them. Granted, they are no more perfect than the parents who have raised them, but I am quite sure they are much less flawed than we, for hopefully, they have learned from the many mistakes we made while raising them. I simply delight in watching and hearing about their activities, from playing in leisure moments to working at their many varied occupations; from car and bicycle racing to kayaking and camping; from singing and playing instruments to playing soccer, baseball, basketball, and volleyball; from having dinners with friends and holding family gatherings to going to their churches and developing their personal beliefs. Oh, my goodness, how independent and individual each one of them is! They are quite firm in their opinions and beliefs, ranging from quite liberal to quite conservative, with five different religious affiliations, and each child and grand seems quite ready to take a stand and throw out facts to back his/her position, regardless of age. Needless to say, we do not agree with many of those thoughts, and we have learned that it is far better to listen to what they have to say and hear out their postulations, rather than to argue, for sometimes we learn some new ideas which help us to form our decisions. For even though they often differ from my thoughts, I still delight in the fact that have such firm convictions and will strongly support them. I am quite sure that they often are annoyed with us, frequently do not understand us and what we do, and sometimes wish we would settle down and quit wandering. I am also quite sure that they do not realize how very much we love them and delight in them. I delight in their laughter, their love, their personal victories and growths, even as I grieve for their sorrows and worries, wishing I could take those problems away. I delight in their phone calls, their pictures, their hugs, and even in their emails! Would I spoil them rotten with special gifts if I could? Probably, I would try! But since we are definitely limited in that aspect, I will just continue to give them my love and delight in them as only a parent can. Will I continue to regard them as delightful, regardless? Absolutely! For as that verse in Proverbs requested, as far as these kids are concerned, thir mother and father are glad and rejoice in them! Indeed, I am absolutely full of delight in our children and so very blessed!