The other night I let my 3 year old daughter paint my toenails. She chose bright green. Of course I would not have chosen that color myself; I humored her to make her happy. She was so excited that I was letting her paint my toenails. As for me, I was slightly annoyed because I knew she would get polish all over my toes. Of course she did! Halfway through I started to get even more irritated about the polish being on my toes. But then I stopped and really watched her. Holding the brush in her hand, with a huge smile on her face, she was slowly moving the brush over my nail with more focus than I normally see from her. She was so careful not to spill the polish and was trying her hardest to stay on the nail. The whole time she was saying "Mommy you are going to love it. It is going to be so pretty!" I couldn't help but be ashamed of my attitude towards something that made my baby girl so happy. Watching her have so much fun with something so simple reminded me that she is only a little girl for so long and I should enjoy these moments. Besides, polish comes off and I will forever have a wonderful memory that I can tell her about when she is older.
Originally I had planned to take the polish off as soon as she went to bed. I never got around to it because I was too tired and just went to bed. Today I checked my twitter page. I don't do so often because I only have two followers and mostly use it to follow random celebrities; one of which is Joyce Meyer, a Christian pastor. Today her tweet read "Love is a decision, and it’s a decision of how we’ll treat other people." It made me think about my initial reaction of irritation to having my toenails painted by a three year old. I love my son and daughter more than anything in the world. How could I be so annoyed by something that causes her great joy and is as simple as some nail polish? Already my daughter has lost the last traces of her "baby fat" and her face is slowly morphing into the woman she will one day be. Every now and again I get a glimpse of her and think to myself "She is going to be a beautiful woman someday." For now she is my wonderful little girl who loves to laugh and loves everyone. She is yet to be spoiled by the evils in this world.
Needless to say, my toenails are still green. I will leave them that way until it is time to put another coat on and then I will have my new nail tech do them again. And this time I won't be annoyed by the polish on my toes, which will wash off the next time I take a shower. This brings me to the point of this entry which is: "Love is a decision, and it’s a decision of how we’ll treat other people." So go out there and love everyone you see because life is too short to be annoyed by the little things.
