Pick Up the Baby

Sam Levenson tells a wonderful story about the birth of his first child.
The first night home the baby would not stop crying. His wife frantically
flipped through the pages of Dr. Spock to find out why babies cry and what
to do about it. Since Spock's book is rather long, the baby cried a long
time. Grandma was in the house, but since she had not read the books on
childrearing, she was not consulted. The baby continued to cry. Finally,
Grandma could be silent no longer. "Put down the book," she told her
children, "and pick up the baby."

Good advice. Put down the book and pick up the baby. Spend time with your
children. Particularly at Christmastime. We have the mistaken notion that
good parents give their children lots of things. Wrong.

In a survey done of fifteen thousand schoolchildren the question was
asked, "What do you think makes a happy family?" When the kids answered,
they didn't list a big house, fancy cars, or new video games as the source
of happiness. The most frequently given answer was "doing things
together." Notice the joy with which Mary and Elizabeth greeted the news
of their pregnancy.

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com