Enough

Last night, after my second bathroom trip (pregnancy is hard), I was lying in bed thinking about what I want for Paxton's future. Jared and I have talked about this several times before. We know that a big part of how he turns out will be based on our parenting choices and the experiences we provide for him. We have talked about letting him make his own choices, like what sports he wants to play, what kinds of activities he wants to be involved in, and even whether or not he wants to go to college. Obviously we have preferences in each area, but we really want to be mindful of not pushing him to be the son we think we want.




I want a lot of things for Paxton. I want him to be active in church, to be a good friend when it is easy and when it is hard. I want him to be good at sports and sweet to his little sibling. I want him to be a successful adult with a wife that I love and kids of his own. I want him to have watched Jared and I together and know how to treat his wife. I want him to believe that marriage can last. I want him to be an involved Daddy like his is. I want him to have enough money, enough love, enough everything. But, I think the most important thing I want for him is for him to be content, to know that exactly what he has is enough.
So that's my parenting goal: to teach him to be thankful for what he has right now, to not always be chasing the next thing. One way we have talked about teaching him this is to take him to the Salvation Army tree at the mall each year before Christmas. We will let him pick a name and pick out presents for his kid. We will tell him that he is going to have one less present because he is going to give it to this child that is having a very different Christmas than him. At first he will probably fight it, kids like presents, but hopefully as the years pass, he will start looking forward to blessing another child, and realize that he already has enough.
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