Grateful for My Sons, Revisited

Grateful for My Sons, Revisited
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 by Susan Lyttek

Today is my oldest son’s birthday. Next week is Thanksgiving. Yesterday, a dear friend taught a fun lesson about gratitude. You add it all together and you get the title of this post.

But I have a confession to make. I thought, while my guys were young, that I wanted them to have a younger sister. I prayed diligently to conceive again. Any time when my cycle was late, I imagined that this was it. This would be the little girl I was dreaming of.

But no.

I always assumed that I would have girls. I grew up with two sisters. That was what I knew. Granted, I was somewhat of a tomboy and had a fair number of male friends, but I had spent the majority of my formative years around females.

And while there are many young ladies whom I adore as a friend or friend of the family, I have to admit God was wise in giving me only sons. I don’t think I would have had the patience for a girl. Especially not for a girly girl.

I don’t do frills, lace, or princess outfits. In those formative years with sisters that I mentioned, I had a doll or two (a collection of a few dozen actually that sat on a display shelf), but didn’t play with dolls unless pressed into it. In fact, I cut the hair of the doll who grew out her hair and melted the hand of another doll. Both incidents happened because I was bored. What did I like playing with? Hot Wheels. My farm set. Being outdoors. My cageful of mice.

I loved taking a bath as a kid, but it predicated on the fact that I got filthy first. I enjoyed exploring the dirt in the neighborhood field, chasing grasshoppers, or shooting hoops until I dripped sweat.

God knew that I needed sons. Even more, he knew that I needed Erik and Karl in my life.

Each of them ministers to different parts of my personality. Each of them also challenges me in a different way to help me grow as a person and a Christian.

Erik gives the best hugs. Ask anyone. If you need a teddy bear, an Erik hug works better. He is also very calming to others, though he might (does) often stress himself out. He sets his sights high and exercises discipline to achieve his goals. He’s always been like that. It’s why, when he knew at 13 that he wanted to be a scientist, that he set a plan and an achievement timetable. In spite of delays by circumstances and the university, he still was in his 20s when he earned his PhD! We also have similar taste in music (though his is a smidge heavier) so we can turn up the volume together. The picture is from the recent Skillet concert we went to in Pennsylvania. But Erik challenges me in that he has a stoic Swedish side. I never know quite what to pray about for him, because he keeps the bad stuff and struggles buried and hidden. He’s getting better about that—slowly.

Karl is my debate partner. We can turn any subject into a discussion. We are not arguing, though people around us often get annoyed at the banter. He is my creative foil. Though he doesn’t pursue writing, (wish he would!) he has amazing ideas and can turn my plots from something mundane into something incredible. For those of you who grimaced at the ghost spiders in the Portal Watchers, you can thank Karl. We threw ideas back and forth, each increasing the creepy factor, until that one stuck. The challenge with my younger guy is that I never quite know which Karl I will get on any given day. He is quiet, but intense, and that reveals itself in teeny bits. He also feels things deeply, but pretends not to. That aspect of his personality does worry me occasionally. If you’re stressed, sit down near Karl and his guitar. The music he coaxes out of the strings will unravel whatever is tightly wound within you. (The picture shows how much his quiet friendliness is adored—here by his young cousins on a recent visit.)

In other words, I am incredibly grateful that our wise and loving God, gave Gary and me sons. Particularly, I am incredibly grateful that he gave us Erik and Karl.

It might be like God knew what he was doing or something?

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