protection

I know growing a child inside of you is a miracle and it should be enjoyed at every stage, blah blah blah. But I am an impatient person and have always thought it takes too long and I want to meet my baby. But this weekend, my viewpoint shifted a little bit. I thought of what a cruel world is out there and how it is nice that for these nine months, my baby is safe and secure inside of me – protected from that outside world by the person who will always love him the most.

I thought of how I want to always be able to protect my boys from everything that is evil. And it pains me to realize that I won’t always be able to. At some point, they will grow up. Their naïvety will wane (much to my dismay), and they will learn about the things in this world that I have tried so hard to shield them from. I can not stop that forever. I will try my damnedest, of course, but what I need to focus on is equipping them to handle it when they do encounter it.

My little boys will grow into men. And somehow, over the next twenty years or so, I am going to make sure they grow into the best type of men there are. The ones who are loving and smart and motivated. They will be all those things and despite the evil in the world, they will see the good, too.  They are going to know just how to handle the evil. They will be fighters like their mama – actively and boldy challenging the world.

You can change the world again, instead of protecting yourself from it.
~Julien Smith