Popularity Contest

I was not in the "popular crowd" when I was in high school. And I'll admit it - for a while, I cared alot about that. I wanted to be popular, and agonized over the fact that I wasn't - and couldn't seem to figure out what it was that made people "popular." All I knew was that I didn't have "IT," whatever "IT" was! And then, my senior year, some things changed. I changed - or rather, God changed me. My walk with Him got a lot better - and suddenly being popular didn't matter so much. I had some real, good friends, and I didn't care about everyone else's opinion. After high school, popularity seemed to matter less and less, until I never really thought about it anymore.

And suddenly today I thought about it again. Because I left the room for a moment and all three of my kids - my very articulate 3-year-old, my stubbornly reticent 2-year-old, and my just started talking 11-month-old, all starting calling "Mama! Mama!" after me, in panic that I had left them. I just starting laughing because it struck me that finally, after all these years, I am popular! I am sooo popular...that I can't leave my adoring fans for even one minute! (they're less clingy when they're not sick). I am the most popular person in our house...pretty much all the time. This is not to say anything again Daddy. He is a wonderful Daddy, and gives lots of time and love and attention to the kids. But I am the one they want when they're hurt or sick or fussy or tired or....just about anything. I spank them and they will run right back to me to be comforted. They would probably do that even if Daddy were standing there holding cookies!

And, unlike high school, this kind of popularity matters! And will (hopefully) last. I know MY mom is still the most popular person in our household. The house just doesn't feel the same without her. Everyone wants to be around her, like bees hovering around their queen. The rest of the world doesn't have much appreciation for women who are "just" wives and mothers...but trying asking their own kids what they think.

Now, I really couldn't care less about my lack of popularity in high school. I have won the most important popularity contest of all....I'm popular with this crowd:

and I wear my crown proudly!

Oh, yes, and I'm quite popular with Daddy too...;-)