I can tell you now, I shall not be receiving the Mother-of-the-Month award this month. Ever have one of those moments when you know you've blown it? Welcome to my world. Thing #3 had mentioned that rather than repair his broken glasses, he needed a new prescription "cause these don't work anymore". This was months ago. But I let it go...too long. Rewind to when he first got glasses 2 years ago, the doctor was surprised that he could even notice the slight vision difference. But since he was squinting, we got the boy some glasses, which he wore when he needed them. Fast forward to the time when they were damaged & almost fully repaired. They just didn't feel good on his face, so he rarely wore them. Fast forward again to his mention of needing a stronger pair of glasses. My first mistake was to view his appeal for new glasses, from the perspective of his original request for glasses. I just assumed he was overly sensitive to the change in vision, and thought that it might be a slight variation since last time. So putting it off for the summer seemed perfectly fine. I mean, a girl's gotta procrastinate sometime, right? My goal was to get it taken care of before school started, since my last homeschooler was now moving back into a classroom for highschool. But that is a different post altogether. Fast forward to last week at the doctor's office, when he is asked to read the smallest line he can. Well, you know that giant hand-sized "E" at the top? My son could read the row right under that...with both eyes. I was feeling very smallish by now. When the doctor came in looking at the chart, he said, "Wow! Have you been worried about him, Mom?" Ashamed, my shoulders dropped as I confessed that unfortunately I had not been overly concerned, due to the past track record. I felt horrible! My kid has been walking around with such a distorted perspective on the world, & I was both careless and cluless. I quickly withdrew my application for Mother-of-the-Month, and set about to make things right. Now, he has new corrective lenses' and is amazed at the world around him. Trees have leaves, faces have features, etc. I have learned my lesson. I must be more proactive with my kids' vision.
Of course there is a spiritual parallel to this posting. As loving parents, we simply can't walk around assuming that our kids are seeing life through a proper perspective or worldview. Vision changes throughout life. It is our responsibility to be proactive to check and/or provide corrective lenses when needed. To let our kids go through life with blurred vision is just irresponsible parenting. Providing a biblical worldview is so much more vital than providing them with the latest gadget or fashion accessory. So here's to praying that I don't drop that ball with my kids. May I not procrastinate when it comes to their worldview. A proper perspective is the least I can provided for these children gifted to me for such a short while.
