My husband and I did something right.
I wish I knew what it was.
Somehow we ended up with this generous, empathetic, intuitive seven year-old boy.
I tell people about David’s acts of kindness, and I wonder if they think I’m exaggerating or making them up. Even I’m amazed by his compassion.
David surprised me again yesterday.
Months ago David asked me to buy his friend a Beyblade. “He really wants one, but his parents won’t buy him one,” David pleaded. I told him maybe we could give his friend one when he had a birthday. Then I didn’t hear anymore about it.
Last night David told me since he got a new Beyblade for Easter, he gave one of his older ones to his friend at school.
David loves those Beyblade. He doesn’t even let his little brother Wade touch them. But he gave one to his friend.
I know enough about David’s friend to suspect the reason he didn’t have a Beyblade was due to his family’s economic situation.
When David goes somewhere he often seeks out the shy kid playing alone, and befriends them. He’s done that since he was three. I remember the little girl in the waiting room of the doctor’s office. Her mom told her to go play with the other kids. She said no, and started crying. David walked over to her, held out his hand and said, “Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle.” That moment that was both sweet and hysterical.
Last year there was the boy at school who didn’t have any snow-pants. David worried the boy was cold, so he took his extra his extra pair to school and gave them to the boy.
Earlier this year David told me about a little girl at school that the other kids don’t like. He said, “But I’m her friend, because if I’m not she won’t have any friends.”
David’s teacher tells me every time I see her how impressed she is with David’s kindness to others.
Somehow David manages to recognize needs and meet needs in his friend’s lives that I don’t think he even fully understands at his age.
I’d like to take credit for this. I’d like to tell you we did A, B, C and D. If you too do A, B, C, and D you can also have a generous, compassionate, amazing kid like David.
I’m just not sure what we did.
We tell him to think of others’ feelings, to share, to put others first. We talk about how some people in the world are very poor. We teach him gratefulness. We tell him material possessions aren’t really important, that they aren’t the key to happiness. We try to model generosity ourselves by giving to and helping others. None of that is groundbreaking. It’s just what you’re supposed to do as a parent. Is that enough to create this incredible kid?
I believe at the heart of David’s kindness is a God-given gift for compassion. It blows me away that He entrusts us with raising this special boy.
That is really beautiful. You seem to know what a gift you’ve been given. Have you ever heard of Indigo children? He sounds like one. They’re sort of like the next step of human evolution, not to sound too far out there!! They are just more connected. You can visit the blog called Intentional Conscious Parenting – they have done several posts on Indigos. Otherwise, just google the term.
Thanks for sharing this story. It made me warm and fuzzy. 🙂
You have one special boy! One day he’s going to make a terrific husband!!
What a sweetheart! Sometimes it feels like as parents we do everything we can to make sure our kids are good people, but they’re still their own, individual selves, and what a blessing that his own personality is so giving and thoughtful. I’m sure you deserve a pat on the back for the majority of his good behavior! I’m so hopeful for our world hearing that there are kids like David in it! I hope my Ellie will be similar or at the very least have a friend like David!