It’s amazing the life lessons we can learn through our kids. Fascinating, really, if we’re willing to watch.

What I think is “absolutely obscure,” Judah finds highly “entertaining.” My one hoodie string, for example, was the subject of about 20-minutes worth of mouth time the other morning.

And then there was the wrapping paper.

A whole 30-minutes later, he was still at it.

And the only reason it wasn’t mangled to shreds (or ingested) was due to a thin foil coating (still intact).

But the process of discovery seems to be the same, no matter our age. We see something we’ve never seen before, do something brand new, and it’s exciting. Fresh. A new job. Marriage. Friendships, church activities, even a new restaurant opening down the street.

Then I noticed that while Judah was busy discovering wrapping paper, Luik had disregarded the stuff, opting for the new set of Duplos he’d just received. Yes, the expression “One man’s junk…” came to mind. Because at some point, “the new” gets filed in the “the old” box, and loses its charm. Wrapping paper for Duplos, Duplos for a video game, video games for a job, job for a car, car for a wife, and a wife for kids–the little poop-smearing cherubs that remind you what it was like to eat wrapping paper. (How’s that for a progression?)

As human beings, we’re born into the habit of interest exchange. I haven’t spent that much time with Legos, or even hoodie strings for that matter, in a very long time. Why? They simply don’t interest me that much. I’m busy with other things.

But is that it? Is that really the reason? Am I just older? New priorities? Or is it something else?

Clothing ties and plastic blocks still have their place in life. Still are important. Just not to me. Because somewhere along the line, I stopped being what my two sons are.

Grateful.

Judah has never seen a hoodie string before. And everything new goes in the mouth. Sure, his brain is the size of a large orange, and the emotion of gratitude may not register. (OK, a very large orange). But you don’t stick something in your mouth for 20-minutes unless you like it. A lot. And Luik, likewise, just received a very cool gift, which–if he’s anything like his father (previous posts telling us that he is)–he’ll be playing with it for a long time to come. Am I so far advanced beyond my sons that these items are trivial now? No. Because the items have not changed. They are very much the same as they were in the 1980′s I grew up in.

I have changed.

I have become less grateful. For everything.

May my sons always appreciate hoodie ties and Duplos. They’re in the top one percent of children who have them, and it’s my job to model that statistic with the attitude of gratefulness.

What are a few “mundane” things in your life that you’re refreshingly grateful for after reading this? ch:

RE