Scary moments can teach the most valuable of lessons.

Last Thursday my wife asked me take our new puppy to the groomer for her first trim. The groomer is right next to my office so it makes it easy for me to take the dog in when I go to work in the morning, and Tiff can pick her up in the late morning or early afternoon.

As I was getting ready to go to work Thursday my daughters were telling our dog how much fun it is at dad's work. My daughters often ask to accompany me to work and as long as I don't have a hearing or depostion I love to have them come with me. As my daughters were telling our dog how much fun she was going to have one of my girls got the idea that it would be even more fun if they came along as well. Unfortunately my older two girls had swim practice so they could not come. My younger two however were able to accompany me. The plan was to drop the dog at the groomers then take the girls to my office, and have Tiff come get my girls and the dog at around 11:00.

The morning was fun. My daughters drew on the dry erase board in my office, and played "lawyer" on the telephone. They also enjoy scavenging the office for paper clips, and making braclets out of what they found.

At about 10:45 I went over to my legal assistant's desk to review a document with her. I could not have been gone more than a few minutes. As I came back into my office my youngest was standing in the doorway crying softly. I thought she had pinched her finger in a door the way she was acting, but as I took her into my office my second youngest pointed to the wall and this is what I saw:



Turns out my youngest had stuck a paper clip in the wall socket. At our home we have covers over all the plugs, and apparently or discussions about the dangers of the wall sockets had not sunk in with my four year old. Through nothing short of the grace of our Lord my youngest had only singed the tip of the index finger on her left hand, and the tip of her right thumb. After getting her hands in cold water I took a look at the socket and saw that the paper clip was sticking out of the socket and that a portion of the paper clip had welded to the screw that was holding the plate cover to the wall. Clearly the damage could have been much more severe.

The experience reminded me of times in my life where those close to me have had experiences that could have caused them to suffer death or a very serious injury. It also reminded me that incidences like this are only the circumstances I know about, and that the Lord's hand protects us from such harm far more often than we will ever know. It also reminded me that every day I have with the ones I love is a gift from God. An experience with my second oldest several years ago helped me to understand that every day with her was a bonus as she could have been taken from me at that time if it had been the Lord's will. My experience Thursday helped me to again realize how temporary our lives really are. Every morning we wake up, every meal we enjoy, every second spent with our children, are gifts from a loving Creator. How anyone could ever waste an opportunity to enjoy their gifts is beyond me.

I clearly have many other lessons to learn from my expereicence (be more careful when you are supposed to be watching your children is a BIG one) and I hope the wisdom to be gained from this experience does not escape me, but for now I will make it a top priority to make sure I never squander any of the precious, and LIMITED, opportunities I have to spend time with the ones I love.