I'm sitting

in a beautiful condo in Park City. Gary is at a conference.  I brought with me a bag full of articles I've clipped out of  newspapers or magazines.  When something I read inspires me, I want to remember it, so I clip them out for future use.  Unfortunately, that is about as far as it goes.  So while I'm sitting here, I'm finding the articles online so I can have them easily accessible. 

One I've come across, is an article from the Deseret News newspaper.  Here is a link:  It's Not the Play-dough that I love

The author is telling about how she really doesn't enjoy play-dough, even though her son wants her to play with it with him.  To quote from the article:

  "I've always assumed that "other moms" love the sometimes-mundane intricacies of motherhood – chasing toddlers across the swing-y bridge at the park, listening to every single detail about the latest episode of "Phineas and Ferb," spending three hours looking through racks of colorful T-shirts while preteens deliberate what will look best to their school friends – but as I watched Spencer's sheer delight at smashing the reds, yellows, and blues into every shade of the spectrum, I came to understand that naturally loving the details is irrelevant. It's the feelings about our children that matter. 

When I read it, the part I've underlined truly touched upon my feelings as a grandmother.  At the time, Tiffany and the kids were visiting, and Ashton was very into Pokemon cards.  He wanted someplace to store them, so we gathered some plastic baseball-card sleeves that I had sitting around (from a long ago project), and we put them in a binder.   We looked through that book many times and  I heard a lot about Pokemon cards and who is the most powerful, etc.  I think most of it went in one ear and out the other, but the memory of sitting and watching his face and hearing him tell me about them will stay forever.

The following Sunday, there was a lesson on showing love in a family.  When asked what some of the most important ways to show love in a family are, this article came to mind.  I thought to myself, "I don't love Pokemon cards, but I love Ashton, so I want to spend time hearing about them from him."

Really, the best thing we can give someone and show them our love, is to give them our time, attention, and listening ear.  I often forget that when I'm so involved in the minutia of every day life.   Sometimes it takes more mental or physical energy than I want to give.  But this article is a wonderful reminder of where we should place our priorities.