necessary distractions

A couple of nights ago as I was trying to prepare my young womens lesson for sunday, Trey came into the living room and started talking to me. I was busy and didn't want to be bothered by the ramblings of a 7th grader. He has a never ending supply of stories. I have enough painful memories of my own at that age and didn't want to be reminded of the hardships of junior high. Of course I never would tell him that, so I tried to put his energies into something a little more quieter, like reading.

Trey doesn't share the same passion for reading like I do. Asking him to read is akin to asking him to clean his room, or washing sunday dinner dishes. He procrastinates in the most creative ways. This particular evening, he chose the teasing route to avoid the task. He joked, he tickled, we laughed, and somehow he managed to keep me entertained till it was his bedtime, and too late to get his reading done. By now I had given up all hopes of working on my lesson, so I decided to wind down our evening together by telling him a bedtime story, the story of Trey.

I started with his birth, putting heroic emphasis on the part where I brought him out of the grips of death when he was only 6 weeks old, and ended with him graduating from BYU with a degree in civil engineering where he excelled and became a millionaire and bought his mother a beautiful new home. Somewhere in the middle of the story, he married a beautiful young woman in the temple, gave me 5 wonderful grandchildren which absolutely adore me, and not just because I took all my kids and grandchildren on a Disney cruise. I'm ashamed to admit that when Trey asked if Dad came on the cruise with us, I had to tell him that sadly, Dad died of a heart attack while playing church ball...how do you think I could afford to take everyone on a cruise? Trey thinks I'm mean, so I amended my story by telling him we promptly sprinkled Dorito chips over his dead body, and he came back to life again...we used his retirement fund for the cruise.

(Insert funny clip here)

After he finally scooted off to bed and I was left alone in our quiet peaceful home, able now to focus on my church responsibilities, I realized how grateful for the distraction, or better yet, the realization Trey gave me that night.

Trey is my greatest responsibility. He is my greatest distraction; from all that is stressful, and demanding, and necessary. He is the joy and laughter in our home. I am ever so grateful that the Lord doesn't always answer our prayers in the way that we ask or hope. If He had, Trey would have been born 17 years ago. He would have been a senior in High school this year. He would be leaving for a mission shortly after. We would be empty nesters. I would feel really old. But because His wisdom is greather than my own, I have a sweet, spunky, cool 12 year old son who loves to talk my ear off, loves to hunt and fish, play sports, and do everything with his dad. Loves and adores his little niece, and loves to hang out and pal around with his sisters when they come home and need a buddy to run chores with. Pretty sure our lives would be different if he wasn't here, at this time, and at this age.

I love my little man...and even as ironic as it is that I've had to literally shoo him and bribe him away so I could write this post (tales of his deacon game had to be re-lived), I am already dreading the day when he puts the earphones in and stops talking to me. (This is why I haven't caved in and bought him an ipod yet.)

My story that night reminded me of another one of Trey's and mine favorite bedtime story, one that makes us both cry everytime we read it; which I'm hoping we'll continue to do for a long time...."I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be."

Ok, now we're both crying. Sorry. Watch the doritos clip again, it will make you laugh.