Beauty Through Your Child's Eyes

     I'm sure we've all heard people say so and so is "living vicariously through their child".  They can live some of the glory of that child's accomplishments.  Saying that about someone has a pretty negative connotation because it's usually the parent pushing the child to live their own unfulfilled dreams.  Today, my daughter attended her first all girls tea party.  Good golly it's all she talked about for days.  We counted down and when this morning finally came she popped up in bed and asked if it was time for her tea party.  I couldn't help but smile and feel such overwhelming joy as she giggled and did silly little girl things while she sampled the yummy treats on her plate and talked to the little girl seated next to her.  I tried to image what was going on in that little head of hers.  There was a little spark in those beautiful hazel eyes.  No matter what happened yesterday, earlier in the day, or what might happen tomorrow, for that moment in time she was joyful and perfectly content.
     When we're young the world is big and fresh.  The smallest things give the greatest joys.  As evidenced by the many calls of the kids constantly clamoring, " Mama look at this, Mama look at that."  It is so easy to let life get heavy.  To let life get cluttered so that we can hardly find the joy in it any more.  The never ending laundry, dishes, driving kids all over God's creation, appointments, work, worry over finances, all kinds of negative circumstances that happen to befall us.  I think such a wonderful lesson can be learned if we look at life as our children do.  They could have had a disappointment or fight with a sibling and hour ago, but most of the time they are able to let it go and take the joy in the moment they are in, and live it to the fullest.
     Let's not hope for joy, let's take joy and own it and live it.  Let's spread it to the people around us.  No matter what, there is always beauty and joy around us.  Sometimes it's a little harder to see or grasp, but it's there nonetheless.  Make the commitment to love anyway, to find the joy anyway, to see the beauty always.  The more you do, the more it will change your life for the better.  Like Corrie Ten Boom said, "Thank God for the fleas!"