A Pinkie Promise

 Five years ago I made a deal with this cute first grader.

Oh how I adore this picture of her!

I made her pinkie promise that if she ever cried at school or felt like crying that she would tell me.

Girls are really awesome at keeping up their end of the deal with that pinkie promise. She always told me when she was sad.
She never had to wait for the "right moment" she just laid it out there. That's the difference between a seven yr old girl and a seven yr old boy!!!

I know that "pinkie promises" are sort of for girls...or so I'm told.

But this first grader reluctantly made the same pinkie promise with me this year.

I'm so thankful that my bedtime routine with this guy has become (for the most part) a safe time for him of talking and praying and reading and snuggling. It's when all the big stuff in his life comes up. Last night I was so glad we had made that pinkie promise. He kept his end of the deal. A series of unfortunate things happened all in a row yesterday. He handled it and there was nothing I could have done about any of it....a migraine, his brand new super cool water bottle fell out of his backpack and cracked, none of his friends were on the bus... That's some pretty bad stuff when you're seven. So he looked out the window on the bus and blinked a lot, which is code for - I am trying really hard not to cry. 

You know what's ALWAYS in the back of my mind as I sit there and listen to my precious seven year old? I think about that boy being 16 or 21 and how I pray that in his mind I will still be a safe person to talk to and get advice from. The stakes will be so much higher then and I pray that Ryan and I will still be a huge influence in his life at that point. I'm working hard now to take a deep breath and give him the time he needs so that I can build a solid relationship with him now.

I'm so thankful that we grabbed pinkies on the first day of school. He rolled his eyes as he promised to always tell me if he was sad. But that moment stuck with him and how thankful I am that he kept his promise.