Lessons from my 7 month old

Do you ever feel defeated by your own dreams?


Do you ever think that your goals are too much to realistically reach for?


Do you ever convince yourself it's not worth the effort to try again?

Today Baby J is 7 months old.

I was sitting here, cruising my facebook account (and chatting briefly with one of my favorite cousins) and I saw over the top of my laptop as the following unfolded...

Step 1: Baby J sees what he wants & crawls toward the tall block-design shelves

Step 2: Baby J confidently pulls the entire toy basket off of the shelf

Step 3: The force of the pull plus the weight of the basket cause him to fall over, flip, and land on his belly (pacifier remains perfectly in place)

Step 4: Baby J looks confused, scared, his plan did not play out as he had imagined--he starts to wimper

Step 5: I peek my head to the side of my laptop and smile at him

Step 6: He looks up at me, and with new resolve, smiles back

Step 7: Baby J immediately starts to push himself back up, crawls to the mountain of toys and finds himself even happier than before

I watched as he picked through the pile of colorful trinkets. I praised him for his success and I admired his determination.

I marvelled at the lesson he just taught me: "don't give up", "keep trying", and "it's always worth the extra effort".

Are we born with the desire to try harder, work more efficiently, and keep going?

Is the concept of quit or give up even in our design? Is this something we have learned as we have grown older...?

Perhaps we have to learn again what it means to really want something, and what kind of determination it takes to get there. I suppose that is another reason parenthood is such a divinely instituted part of this life...so we can re-learn our priorities and be reminded how to reach our goals.

What have you learned from children in your life?