Five Minute Friday:Tender (On Tuesday)

We spent the weekend dancing in Georgia and I was too busy running the Grace Girl from competition to convention classes to do anything else. Yesterday was make-up schooling and extra loads of laundry I never fathomed this many loads of dark hand wash only as well as bathing the dog because she'd been at the kennel for a few days eewwwww.  So, here it comes, a Five Minute Friday: Tender (On Tuesday)


Five minute Friday is here...five minutes where I'll write without editing, backtracking, or second guessing.  Five minutes to write because I love it, because it frees me, if only for five minutes...
Today's topic?  Tender

Ready...Set...Go!

Tender  is how my heart gets when I watch them and don't realize it. Dreaming their dreams and telling each other secrets in hushed whispers  as  the occasional giggle slips out.

Tender  is how she's always approached her big sister, the one who shows her the ropes and gives her the most grief.  Her little hands wrap around one that is looking surprisingly like mine these days and I see the tendency for my eldest to act big, to not willing grasp those ballet pink painted fingers and I cry out in my heart, "Please, keep her tender, Lord...soften her."

In the moments where I am able to really see them, to watch them grow and change and  adjust in our world, I seek the tender. 

To be soft with them in times I am tired and out of patience

For my words and my tone to match when I am about to answer in haste

In the giving of my time when it seems there is none left in our hurried day

With words of their favorite stories and lullabies as I am granted the privilege of snuggling them before bed


I want to be a mother that displays the tender and passes it on, so they might too


STOP

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