Parasaurolophus

Through our church's Jr. Church program, Snipp received a dinosaour fossil kit. It was a rather cool project for him. First he had to unwrap this dino egg. We had him do this over a cookie sheet; the instructions said an easily to clean surface:) Snipp used a tool to dig in the dirt excavating "bones". Then he diligently used the brush to remove the dirt. Finally, he worked tediously to assemble the bones. He worked on this project for at least an hour.

When I checked on him, Snipp had just the two front arms and one leg to assemble. Now the instructions said to check for dirt in the holes if assembly was difficult. But my frustrated son noticed that the pieces themselves were not fitting properly. I took a look at it and three minutes later, I was frustrated too!

I decided to just superglue it together for him. Twenty minutes later, I still had no progress. Pieces weren' t glueing well and others were falling off!! Temptation to just give up was strong. My son encouraged me to remember not to quit................

Twenty more minutes went by........some success as well as superglue on six of my ten fingers! I still wanted to quit, throw it in the garbage, and just cry. Yet I did neither. My love for my son compelled me on, as did Snipp's belief in me that I would get it together. So I continued.

Twenty more minutes later, after one leg that was glued fell off as I attempted onced again to glue on an arm, and more glue on my already gluey fingers, I finally succeeded to get it together though it looked very frail.

Carefully, as not to bump the table, I slipped away to take a mental break almost expecting it to be in pieces again the next time I looked at it. Amazingly enough, it stayed together so very, very gently I move the fragile Parasaurolophus to my china closet. And I went off to find a nail file to file off the dried superglue from my fingers.

God's lesson to me in all this: Don't quit!! These little ones are believing in me! Out of love, persevere and don't do anything rash (like smashing up a parasaurolophus and throwing it away). Just keep going when it seems like things will never go together as I envision it.

Another note: A day later, my son was in tears about something he was to do, that he thought he was unable to do. "I can't" echoed off the walls of our home. I took him to the china closet to my friend the Parasaurolophus. Amazingly, he was together, though he still looked as though he would fall apart any minute. I haven't even touched him to see how sturdy he is. Anyway, back to my son.
Through his tears, I had him look at the dino who had caused him and me such frustration. I shared with him that I didn't think I could either. And that he had told me to not give up, not to quit. I shared how his words had encouraged me and how my love for him made me press on. Then I encouraged him to do the same. To not give up and just say "I'll try". Then really try. And out of love for Jesus just to not give up.