So Proud

Every once in a while your child does something that makes your heart swell. Today was one of those days. It hit me, for no particular reason, just how much I love my fifth child. He's in an odd spot in our family. Four older siblings three of which are boys that are quite a bit older so they didn't hang out much with him when he was little. He was his sister's favorite playmate until he reached that "annoying little brother" stage and even they are almost four years apart.  He was the baby of the family for eight and a half long years. Then his world turned upside down as his role as baby was replaced by his younger brother who instantly became the center of attention.
He had been gone all this past week at EFY (for my non-member friends you can see what this means here) so maybe I had missed him more than I realized or maybe I was just in an especially sentimental mood today at church. I really don't know but as I looked at him sitting at the Sacrament table ready to bless the Sacrament and perform his Priesthood duties my heart just swelled with pride. I am so grateful that he makes the choices he needs to be worthy of the sacred Priesthood that he holds so he can serve those in our congregation. He recites the Sacrament prayer with feeling, clarity and conviction. Not always an easy task.

So today, during Sacrament I was watching and listening to my fifth born child, reflecting on his life and I cried. I am so blessed by my children. Sometimes from the lessons we all learn through their struggles and sometimes during a quiet moment like this one, at church, just observing.

I dried my eyes and thought that would be the end of it. A tender private moment for a mom.

But a little while later he decided to bear his testimony (most Sundays at our church there are one or two youth and two adults asked to speak on an assigned topic but on the first Sunday of every month (we call it Fast Sunday) anyone in the congregation can come up and bear their testimony. My fifth child never bears his testimony but today he did.

He told a little about EFT, what the theme was, what some of the classes were about and how they were challenged to memorize the 13th Article of Faith. He talked about how we need to put our past behind us and not dwell on it but repent from our mistakes and move forward. He told us all about the 39 kids that were in his group and how they all became friends this past week and now he has an even larger Heavenly family. Then he shared a story that one of his group members shared. It is a story I had never before heard but have since looked up online. It is called the Selfish Giant and my son shared a condensed version of it. Then he closed by proclaiming his belief in our Father in Heaven, his Son Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon, our latter day prophet Joseph Smith and our current prophet Thomas S. Monson.

The tears returned and my heart swelled. I was so proud.

This is my fifth born, he's just an ordinary kid but sometimes he is simply amazing!