Soft.

This morning I woke up to the sun greeting me through my blinds, a slap in the face followed by a "mamaaaaaa!" Rise 'n' shine. And soon as we cuddled for the 0.2 seconds Riley would let me, we got up and had to EAT! {I believe we have a growing boy!} It was waaaaay too nice to stay in so we went "side" {Riley for outside} and went on a run. Well some of us ran, some of us slept in the stroller...

On my way back and after a stop at the park, we passed this massive pine tree that had new needles all along the ends of every branch.

 

Bright green, full of life and seemed to give some color to a tree that's always green, but has been dulled through the years. I reached my hand out and to touch the needles and oh my, they were like silk. Being a not so knowledgeable person regarding trees, I had no idea that new growth on a pine tree would be so soft. I was kind of in awe. I just stood their touching this tree {creeper} Then, because its like my mind is constantly writing a book, I started to think of the imagery of this tree. 

We're all born in sin, yes, but babies are still innocent are they not? While I didn't have to teach Riley to be defiant, or selfish because of his true nature, he still trusts people, he loves people, he cares about others, he has no prejudices, he doesn't hate because he has yet to be given any real reason to....no, rather he's soft, flexible, moldable and full of color and life. But as he grows and as life slaps him {back} in the face, he'll learn to stop trusting others so much, he'll be bitter at times and cynical of others. He'll learn to serve himself before others, he'll become dull and hard and rigid in "his" way. And I just stopped there in the road thinking, "what am I doing to keep his heart soft"? Am I training my son to be tender and react sweetly and be moldable to the hand of God? Or am I teaching him through my short temper, selfish thinking and inflexibility to become hard? These trees have massive branches and each preceding needle is now stiff, dull and sharp to the touch. While I do realize the new growth will take its place eventually, I hope for the sake of my children I'm able to teach them to retain their child-like faith and heart and despite inevitable hurts and pains that come their way, their able to forgive in effort to remain soft in the hands of Our Potter.