Full of Thanks

My girls fight like crazy most days.  They bicker back and forth, steal toys from each other, argue over who gets their hair brushed first, and on and on and on.  Many times I day I hear the phrases:

"I'm not playing with you anymore!"
"Calli hit me!"
"I'm first!"
"I had that first!"
"Noooooooooooo!!!"

But every once in awhile I hear phrases such as:

"I love you, Serena"
"Let's play together"
"You're the best sister ever!"
"She's the cutest little sister in the whole world!"
"Calli gave me this!"

I have to learn patience with them over and over and over throughout the day and I must admit, I fail most days at it.  I want to be understanding and fair, but most days it comes through as yelling and time outs.  I worry that I'm setting them up for sibling rivalry or that they will hate each other when they get older because I unintentionally favored one over the other.

And every once in awhile they will surprise me.  Whether it's walking home from school together hand in hand having a sweet conversation about the lunch they shared and exchanging "I love yous" or insisting on sitting together to eat breakfast and dinner or sharing their toys so nicely when they play.  Those are the moments I live for and they seem so fleeting.

So when your older daughter has a school assignment that asks her to color a turkey and write on the back what she is thankful for and she immediately turns it over and says this (and please excuse the spelling mistakes):

Well, don't expect to not shed a tear or two and perhaps give a silent prayer of thanks that they might just actually like each other.  We can learn so much from children and their quick ability to forgive and love unconditionally.  It doesn't matter that minutes before these two had been arguing; the only thing Calli knew when she turned that paper over to write was that she was thankful for her little sister simply because she is her little sister.