Pitter Patter

Today is "Measure Your Foot Day" according to HolidayInsights.com. It was supposed to be a day to literally measure the size of our feet, but honestly who wants to do that?

Instead, it seemed like a fitting day to "stamp" our daughter's foot as a keepsake for the years to come. I did this not long after she was born, and of course have countless pictures of her cute little feet through her 15 months of life, but given the celebration of the day it seemed like a good thing to do.

Today's "celebration" did get me thinking about how else we can measure our feet though. I mean, yes, we can literally bring out a tape measure and calculate the length of each foot; but with a growing little person in our world it occurred to me that there was another way to look at this day.

As I sat and observed my daughter today, I noticed just how much she imitates me/us. She watches everything we do with such curiousity, and then purposefully tries to copy what she sees. It's cute to watch her imitate us as we walk in our shoes, but in watching her try our shoes on and then clop around in them a fear grips me that I've never experienced before. The fear that comes from knowing that she's watching me, learning from me, and that how she turns out, how she acts, what she thinks and believes about the world, about life, about God, will be largely detemined by watching me and how I react to these things. The measure of my life can be taken by watching my daughter as she grows and moves out to conquer the world. That's a scary thought, and one that is driving me to my knees more now than ever.

We still can't believe we hear the pitter patter of little feet in our house... but those little feet are a challenging reminder of just how carefully we need to walk as she follows closely behind.