Week 76 brought with it the first real signs of spring! Jack was able to enjoy some outside play time at day care and we got to play in the backyard for the first time this year. Jack enjoys being outside, so he had a blast running around the backyard with the dogs. That is…until he fell and scraped his head. Thankfully it didn’t phase him for long and, even though his head made it look like he had a bad case of road rash, it looked much worse than it actually was. I like watching him have fun and I appreciate how hard he plays…at the same time I also wish it came with a few less scrapes and bruises.
This week we celebrated a significant milestone moment as we dedicated Jack to the church. We’ve been excited for this moment to come around for a while, and in my role at FCC I’ve participated in several of these services. I’ve always looked forward to the moment where we would dedicate our child to the community of faith and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this particular moment and have prayed often that we would raise Jack in a way that would set him up for a lifelong faith. It was an awesome experience, but it didn’t unfold quite how we imagined it would. It was in fitting Proffitt style that we would celebrate this moment covered in bumps, bruises and scrapes.
It started out AWESOME! We had to hurry a little, but we got out of the house ON TIME. I knew it was going to be a good day when we left the house with plenty of time to make it to church. We arrived and Jack was the cute amount of shy and sat in his chair so well as the speaker talked. I was proud of how well he was behaving (him being the Family Team Leader’s son and all that). He was a little wiggly as we prayed over him and then, when it was time for the three of us to go up front for the official dedication piece, the wheels fell off. Jack was suddenly tired of sitting still, did not want to be held, and was not going to be happy with anything less than running around on the stage. Much to his dismay we held on to him through the dedication proper. We don’t remember exactly what we dedicated him to, but the day was meaningful nonetheless. He was happy after the service ended because it meant that he got to run around and play with some of the other kids.
I learned something really significant through this experience. Something I have to continually relearn because it hasn’t yet sunk in. That lesson is this: The experience doesn’t have to be perfect to be meaningful. We didn’t have to show up at the dedication with everything together, free of blemish, on our best behavior for it to be a meaning-filled experience. It was a great day and a great week regardless of all the messiness it included.
I think this is true for most of life’s major moments. They don’t have to happen exactly as we imagined for them to still be pivotal and powerful moments. I get the sense that most of our parenting moments along the way won’t unfold the way we anticipate them to, but we’re going to try to not let that distract us from the significance of those moments. Moments don’t have to be perfect to be meaningful.
We’re in preparation mode in a lot of ways right now. We’re preparing for Easter at work and at home. We’re looking forward to Easter services at church in a few weeks and we’re getting ready for the arrival of Allison’s parents that same weekend.
Thanks for stopping by for week 76 of 936!
Life With Jack is a series about time. At one level it’s my attempt to count the time we have with our son from the time he was born to the time he turns 18 so that we’re more likely to make that time count. This series is my attempt at being present in a world full of distractions. You can read more about this series here.
THE WANDERING PROFFITT 