The other day Amelia (9 years old) and I were talking and she mentioned that she would like to be a mother as soon as possible.  My first reaction (after seeing way too many famous teens with babies in the news lately) was WAIT A MINUTE, think that over!

But this is Amelia we’re talking about.  Naturally, she hadn’t meant to say that she was yearning for teen pregnancy.  She blushed when I mentioned it.  She was simply expressing her current feelings about motherhood.

For a moment after she left and I had my thoughts to myself, I was quite flattered.  HEY!  I must be doing something right if my daugher watches me and wants to be a mother!  But another second or two brought greater humility.  Amelia is privileged to be surrounded by good and caring mothers.  Her aunts and grandmas fit that description, as well as classmates’ mothers, women in the neighborhood, and mothers in our church congregation.

I am thankful that Amelia has been so fortunate.  I am also thankful for her tender heart, her capacity to love, and her desire to teach.  I pray that at the appropriate time her Heavenly Father will bless her with the opportunity to have a loving marriage where she and her husband can welcome their children with joy.  I pray that she will not find it difficult to conceive and bear them. Finally, I pray that years from now, when things are crazy for her, with toddlers clinging in the kitchen while laundry piles up in the bedrooms, she will not forget that this was what she wanted so much.  I want Amelia to be a child today, but I look forward to seeing her as a mother tomorrow.

I realized that Kate and Duncan were my must-do today.  Those other things–that minutiae mountain that I thought was job one today, was actually just auxiliary.  My job is Kate and Duncan.  Not to placate them and get them out of the way so that I can do my real work–the point is that they are my real work.

It is an obvious point, but I had forgotten it again.

We went outside into the other world of the sunshine.  Their boots crisped excitedly through the last crust of snow.  We climbed our little play dome and took turns being King and Queen of the wer-lurd.  They gathered some little treasures; I gathered some thoughts.

Later I talked about this moment with Pdad.  We agreed that however auxiliary doing the laundry is, it’s true that our dear ones still need clean underwear.  So, the same mountain of minutiae still haunts me (darn laundry!), but somehow it feels a little different.

Mr. Yoon, I do not know you and I have never experienced the terrible things you are going through, but I believe you are doing the right things. You asked us to pray for the pilot so that he would not suffer from his role in the accident. I, for one, would also like to pray for you. You don’t know what to do, but your actions have already been a great example to me: To forgive, to remember (the loved ones), and to look to God.

Man who lost family when jet hit house: I don’t blame pilot – CNN.com.