The Choice

There is nothing on Earth that can prepare you for having children.

I was always really good with other people’s children. Most of them seemed to love me. That’s because I wasn’t around them for long periods — two hours max.

To raise children, you must have patience. And if you don’t have any patience to spare, you will by the time they get through with you. Everything I’ve experienced with my children falls under that category — patience.

Whether it’s repeating the same thing twenty thousand times a day or waiting on them to slide their feet into flip-flops, which is like waiting on a kindergartner to solve sin(90°−x) = cos x, we’ve got to have patience. What I want to say is, “Just put your feet in the shoes, please. It isn’t rocket science.”

You will need patience when one of them decides to drink the orange juice out of their hand instead of the cup. Or when they use Bath and Body Works hand soap to clean the bathroom ceiling and walls.

You’ll need patience when they attempt to replicate Michelangelo’s masterpieces in the hallway. Or when they put their toys and a toothbrush in the white porcelain component of the water closet.

Okay, enough of these purely hypothetical examples. Ahem.

Patience is something that we all possess, but very few exercise. Truly, patience is a choice. But once you get to a certain point of exercising patience, patience gets flat worn out and needs to go lie down. Then you are on your own.

Patience becomes a virtue when you consistently choose it over all other options.

And that applies to more than just raising children. Choosing to be long-suffering toward family, friends, idiots driving cars, or your pet dog, means you are on your way to living life less flustered.

And sometimes, we need help from the Divine. But even then, it’s still an option up to us to choose.

to those with choices,
– Caleb