Success Sunday
–Keri Russell
The following prayer was the very very first song that I ever sang in church as a solo.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen
Shortly afterward, 9-11 happened. I was actually in the middle of a huge e-battle with The Sis. It immediately ceased and I sent The Prayer to her. We haven’t spoken about that argument since then. Honestly, I can’t even remember what it was about. I don’t think we’ve even had an argument since then (which is really odd). She is one of my best friends.
Then when I was pregnant with The Elder, I recorded the accompaniment on our piano so that I could sing it to him in utero (I can’t walk and chew gum sing and play at the same time). His first few days on Earth was spent under a bili-light and it broke my heart to not be able to hold him and comfort him as he cried in fear. All I could do was sing. So I sang The Prayer and he immediately stopped crying and looked my way in those pitiful little eye goggles (the kind you had to strap on. The Younger had the tape on kind that isn’t nearly as easy to rip off). I couldn’t even get through the first few lines because of his reaction. I sang that to him every night in the rocker before I laid him down to sleep. I must have stopped some time around the time I found out I was preggo with The Younger, so he was right around 1yr old. Today, The Elder calls that his “special song.” I never told him it was special. I sang it for the first time in a loooong time last Christmas to him and that is what he named it. My favorite is when he requests it.
“Mommy, gotta sing me my special song, please”
I’m looking forward to seeing how The Prayer threads through not only my life but perhaps The Elder’s too. Based on his accomplishments in the last few days, I can see him being a peacemaker. Isn’t that ironic?But at the other end of the spectrum, those seemingly insignificant things that I totally brushed off have the same sort of powerful impact, but not in a favorable way. You know, kinda like not being consistent with your children? Boy that one always blows up in my face…
BTW, The Younger’s special song is the Alphabet Song. That was the only thing that I could sing to him to keep him happy. I realized later that when I was pregnant with him, The Elder was at that age when I was trying to get him to sing his ABC’s (because all his friends were doing it. It’ll make you feel good). So I guess he picked up on that. Fortunately for me, it is the same tune as Baa Baa Black Sheep and Twinkle Twinkle. I could switch it up a bit.
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Wal-mart & Grandma
Did anyone catch this Youngerese-ism???
I thought I would die laughing when we finally figured it out. Someone please humor me!
Find Out what The Younger was Saying
Find Out what The Younger actually Meant
I wish I had audio of it. I think he is starting to pronounce it correctly now. Boy they grow up too fast.
Origins of names
I enjoyed Angela’s post about where her children’s names came from. It reminded me of the ordeal we went through to name our children. Here is the comment I left on her post:
We had a list of names (separate lists) of what to name The Elder. We ended up choosing a name that wasn’t even on the list because he didn’t “look” like a Graham or whichever names we had. It took us 6 hours to name him, and didn’t let grandparents meet him until we could introduce him with a name.
His name means “Honorable Ruler” and “Gift of God” and The Younger’s name means “Little King” and “Gift of God” (but their middle names are not the same!). Isn’t that cool? So in essence, The Younger was named after The Elder!
Since we didn’t know what The Younger was in terms of gender, we had both girl names and boy names picked out. We still wanted to wait until he was born to actually name him. You know, just in case he was a she, though that mommy instinct told me otherwise. The week before he popped out (actually The Hub got to deliver him), I doubted that instinct and I started to panic because I had nothing girlie to take him home in in the event it was a girl. Fortunately it was a boy because we knew what we wanted to name him already. Double fortunately, he “looked” the part too.
So, where did your kids’ names come from?
