What they teach us

Learning from children two hard lessons: faith and humility | Tony Woodlief

My wife and I attended that blessed event recently: the child-free dinner party. Even when your children are out of sight, however, they aren't out of mind, as when our hostess invoked Christ's admonition: Unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. How, she asked, are you learning faith from your children?

I've been considering what they have taught me, the boys who are living as well as the girl who died. Humility comes quickly to mind. No matter how lofty one's discourse with guests, there is an instant leveling effect when one's 2-year-old bellows from the bathroom: "D-A-A-A-D! WIPE ME!"

Sometimes the lesson is less direct. I remember visiting a public restroom with my then 5-year-old, Caleb, and fussing at him, as I dried my hands, for dawdling. "I'm sorry Daddy," he said. "I was holding open the door for that man with the walkie thing." He was referring to the old man using a walker, the one I'd noticed in my peripheral vision but hadn't thought to help, set as I was on bathroom efficiency.