Journals for Children

My wife and I had an idea of getting a journal for our kids before they were even born.  It was just a spiral bound notebook, but we wrote in that journal our prayers for him or her before we knew if it was a him or a her.  We also had other people in our family and friends write in it.  As the child was born we wrote the birth information and continued to communicate in the journal what we could not seem to communicate with the baby.  As our baby grew into a toddler we wrote down things that were happening, like our son who learned igiKuria as he was learning English, and our daughter who was on 11 air plane flights in the first year of her life, and our son who everyone thought should be a model for Gerber, and our son who was miraculously healed of glaucoma at Riley Hospital.  Even now, we continue to wrote things even as they get older.  We write messages we want them to hear and read.  Oftentimes we forget about the journals for a while, but always go to it and eventually put something of what is happening in their lives.  We are in a sense recording their childhood, and in another sense recording our parenthood. 

Why do I think this is a good idea?  Not because what you write will be remembered like the Gettysburg Address or I have a Dream.  Not because it will be published as a book.  Not because every word you say will even be true.  It is a good idea because our children need to hear from us – not just sarcasm, not just yelling, not just frustration.  They need to hear love.  One day we will die.  Our children will have a record that they may keep guard of even more than their social security number, a record that their parents love them.