Reflection on a sticker...

Today my wife and daughters were on their way home from story time at the bookstore and they decided to swing by the place where I work to say "Hi." I came out and sat in the car with them for a few minutes. While I was out there, my eldest daughter, who is 2 1/2 showed me the activity they had done after story time. It was "Very Hungry Caterpillar" day and so their craft had involved a small thin caterpillar and a big fat caterpillar. Knowing the story, I asked if they had a butterfly and my daughter showed me the shiny glittery butterfly sticker on her shirt. I told her what a good job she had done and went back to talking to my wife. After a minute, my daughter spoke up and said "Papa, here is a sticker for you." She had pulled the sticker off her shirt and was now offering it to me. It was a sweet gesture and so after making sure that she was sure she wanted to give it to me, I accepted the gift and thanked her, sticking her gift over the pocket on my shirt.

After finishing my conversation with my wife, I bid them all good-bye and returned to work. Our office environment is very casual, so I didn't think about the sticker until I was washing my hands after using the restroom. In the mirror, I noticed a sticker fit for a little girl - not a grown man. Now normally, I would have removed the sticker and stuck it to one of the pictures she has drawn me that adorn my office walls. However, as I was walking back to my office, I got to thinking about it. I remembered that when I was a little kid, there was few things cooler than a nice sticker. Any chance you got to have one, you wore it with pride until it refused to stick to anything. They were used on homework to make you feel special. Stickers were fun and treasured when you got them. That got me thinking - I know that my daughter loves stickers and that she enjoys having one on her shirt. Then I realized something: she had given me the sticker because I am that special to her and she wanted me to feel as special as that sticker had made her feel. WOW! I was about to get rid of such an amazing compliment without even considering what it meant... talk about an eye opening experience.

When I got home, I gave her a big hug and told her thank you for the sticker again and told her how special she was to me. Though she probably didn't understand it, I wanted to tell her anyway.

Later this evening I had some errands to run so I offered to take her with me while my wife and younger daughter went to Mass. While we were running errands, she said to me, "Papa, I wish you were a Mama."

ME: "Why is that, honey?"
B: I want you to stay home with me all day.

It gets harder to leave every day. Thats why I'm glad that they have started sleeping in until after 8, so that I get more time with them at night and that I don't have to leave sad faces each morning.

As I was helping her get ready for bed tonight, she said one more thing I thought I would share.

B: Papa, you should be a Mama.
Me: Why is that?
B: Because then you could be beautiful like Mama is.

God makes children amaze us to show us that not all of what they learn is from us - He does some teaching, too.

But now I'm back to my mission...I love it!