During Sunday church services I typically sit alone with my five children during the singing part of the worship because my husband leads music for our church.  As I was holding down the fort yesterday during church, our 6 week old baby girl started to cry.  Bless my 6.5 year old man-child because his first instinct was same as mine; he went and picked Bethany up.  He held her, gave her a pacifier, and rocked her in order to comfort her.  After she was calmed and went back to sleep, he carefully put her back in the car seat.  About 10 minutes later, Bethany started to cry again.  My sweet boy hopped to his feet and rocked his baby sister in the car seat.  After she calmed again, he hopped back on to the pew to sit with the rest of us.  I was one proud mama!  He did all these without my asking.  I couldn’t help but brag a little about him to a friend afterward.

This morning as I laid in bed still needing more sleep, I asked my boy to serve his brother and sisters cereal for breakfast.  When I finally got out of the bed, I saw all the kids sitting at the dining table with their roo bibs on and eating cereal.  My boy even gave everyone blueberries in their cereal.  Again, I was so proud and felt much blessed.

Later in the day when my energy level dropped, I asked my boy to make me a cup of coffee while I nursed the baby.  He stirred in just the right amount of cream and sugar, just the way I like it and brought it to me.  Again, I was so proud.

I think I need to give him a badge of honor.

I write all these not because I want to brag about my boy (ok, maybe just a tad), but to remind myself that I need to express words of appreciation to my boy.  I told friends and my husband how proud I was, but later realized that I didn’t even tell the very person who did all these wonderful deeds how much I appreciated him.  Does he even know how I felt?  As soon as realized my faux pas, I brought my boy to me and told him how much I appreciated his help.  I chuckled inside because he was embarrassed when I praised him and didn’t want to look me in the eyes as I expressed my thoughts to him.

I think it is important to give praise to whom it is due.  Our children need to know that we appreciate them.  Too often they hear us correcting them for one thing or another.  How often do they hear us telling them our thankfulness for them and how much they’re an asset to us?  As much as we need words of affirmation, our children need the same.  I pray that I will always remember to tell them how much I love and appreciate them.