Do you ever observe your kid doing something or saying something that makes you just want to freeze time so you can soak in the joy? This happened to me this morning as I witnessed Peter counseling Jeremy after a hard loss at Candyland.

It was Jeremy vs. me. From the beginning, the game seemed to go in my favor. First I drew Princess Lolly, then I kept picking up doubles–double purple, double yellow… The final straw for Jeremy was when I drew Queen Frostine and jumped toward the end of the game board. All throughout, Jeremy carried on about how he is terrible at this game, he never wins this game, etc. etc.

When I drew the purple that won me the game, Jeremy, in despair and with a major frown on his face, declared how bad he was at the game. Peter, listening intently, came alongside him and started speaking gently to him. This is what I heard, verbatim:

“Jeremy, what does it say in the Bible? Why did God create you? To do nothing? To say you can’t do anything? No, Jeremy. He created you to do good things and to praise Him.”

I caught a glimpse of my little guy as a man shepherding others and pointing them to the truth of God’s word. Parenting does not get any better than that.