Fortress for well-being
Today my friends Negar and Zekre let me baby-sit their 2-month old little boy for a little bit as they did something important together. I only had to watch him for 40 minutes, and he was asleep for the first 10 of those 40. I used to baby-sit all the time, but I don't think I'd ever watched over a baby quite that young.
Oh to hold that little creature in my arms! My eyes welled with tears (I know, I'm so corny) thinking about how amazing God is, to entrust us with little creatures, little human beings that we are tasked with raising and loving and nurturing and caring for. He started crying when he awoke from his nap but I wasn't sure if I should feed him yet or try to coax him back into sleep, so I paced with him, up and down the lobby of the Seat of the Universal House of Justice, singing children's prayers into his ears in English and Spanish.
(Naturally, my mind wandered to the day when I might have my own little one to nurture and sing prayers to. My eyes welled with tears again.)
He fell asleep again momentarily but then woke up and it was time to feed him. Negar also told me I should burp him about 2/3 into the bottle, so once we reached that point, I lay his tiny little head on my shoulder and gently patted his back. Nothing, nothing, and then there it was. It was so exciting! And suddenly it hit me why marriage is a fortress for well-being. Well, one of the reasons.
Through marriage you bring forth children, and all of a sudden, these people are everything to you. Your whole life revolves around whether or not they are burping, or sleeping, or laughing, or crying, or potty trained, or healthy, or getting their hearts broken, or getting into the 'right' school, or getting engaged, or having their own babies...
Suddenly becoming forgetful of self is not so hard because you love them so much. It's just natural that they come first. That your orientation is outward. And what better fortress than that could there be to protect us from self-centredness?
Oh to hold that little creature in my arms! My eyes welled with tears (I know, I'm so corny) thinking about how amazing God is, to entrust us with little creatures, little human beings that we are tasked with raising and loving and nurturing and caring for. He started crying when he awoke from his nap but I wasn't sure if I should feed him yet or try to coax him back into sleep, so I paced with him, up and down the lobby of the Seat of the Universal House of Justice, singing children's prayers into his ears in English and Spanish.
(Naturally, my mind wandered to the day when I might have my own little one to nurture and sing prayers to. My eyes welled with tears again.)
He fell asleep again momentarily but then woke up and it was time to feed him. Negar also told me I should burp him about 2/3 into the bottle, so once we reached that point, I lay his tiny little head on my shoulder and gently patted his back. Nothing, nothing, and then there it was. It was so exciting! And suddenly it hit me why marriage is a fortress for well-being. Well, one of the reasons.
Through marriage you bring forth children, and all of a sudden, these people are everything to you. Your whole life revolves around whether or not they are burping, or sleeping, or laughing, or crying, or potty trained, or healthy, or getting their hearts broken, or getting into the 'right' school, or getting engaged, or having their own babies...
Suddenly becoming forgetful of self is not so hard because you love them so much. It's just natural that they come first. That your orientation is outward. And what better fortress than that could there be to protect us from self-centredness?
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