Jace

I will confess, it struck me as kind of funny when some friends back in Arkansas got married and asked a single brother to do the marrying.  I also kind of resent people without children telling me anything about mine.  Here's something that annoys me the most.  I am divorced and for a long time, I was one of those the WT calls "unwillingly single."  I guess I got old because now I'm fine with it and looking forward to doing what I want to do in the near future as my children abandon my nest.  Or, they can come with me, but they'll be full-fledged adults. 
So there was a sister in Arkansas who said one day out in service that her husband was away on RBC business - our brothers did a lot of work in New Orleans after Katrina, and that she was leaving the day he came back for a trip to Florida, and that if she timed everything right she would not have to render her marital due for at least a month.
Not a good thing to say to a single sister.  I hate the way some sisters treat their husbands.  And, Satan is attacking every way he can and I just received the news that an elder I respected has left his wife for a much younger sister in the congregation and the couple is now attending another congregation to seek reinstatement.  Ah, the wife of one's youth.
Maybe I gave up on marriage because I'm 49, and the market for me either makes me a cougar or gives me the prospect of a much older man who might leave me a widow.  That's a lot of energy to invest that I'd just as soon spend blogging or moving to Saipan to teach English and preach the good news.
So Jace is about to be joined by a little sister.  Jace is the firstborn of my friend in Arkansas who waited till we left to have a baby.  We left August 4, and he came just a few weeks later in 2008. 

Jace is a handful.  He's a typical boy, full of energy, and does not want to sit still, and so he's spent his share of meeting time in the second school and the foyer.  I sure wish I was there to see him.  And his parents have had a lot of advice on how to make him sit still and behave at the Kingdom Hall.  Some of it was harsh.  I'm not the wooden spoon kind of parent.  I never wanted my kids to think that the Hall was where they went to have a bad time and be punished a lot.  Especially as toddlers.  There is a reason they don't accept toddlers into the public school system.  No one could put up with that short attention span!  That is why the day care ratio in all states is strictly maintained as one worker to five toddlers - and that is a full time job.
I imagine that at the Sermon on the Mount a lot of children were not really listening no matter how astounded their parents were by Jesus' manner of teaching.  And in the Israelite camp, oh how some of us wish we could have lived then and heard Aaron and Moses.  But there were little kids for whom Aaron was just a  background droning voice.  They wanted to go play pick up sticks behind the tents. 
I'd be a lot more worried if Jace had just sat there listening through his terrible twos.  That would not have been so terrible for his parents, of course, but it would have been abnormal for Jace.  Now, he has grown into a lovely child who is happy to contemplate pre-school and is looking forward to his sister's arrival. 
And I guess it might be strange, but some of the best parenting advice I ever got was from Jace's parents, long before his birth.  Still, I am glad the anointed consists of the full spectrum of humanity, and they are resurrected to heavenly life, immortality, and perfection.
I bet some of them were busy little toddlers, and overwhelmed parents, and maybe even complained about their spouses when on earth.