Gratitude Challenge Day 3: The Integrity of His Heart

When our third child, Hyrum, was about four years old he had a hard time passing any kind of button without trying to push it. One time I found him pushing the buttons on our Wifi router and I asked him to stop. He responded, “But what if this is the button that makes the house fly?!” Needless to say that story will long outlive his button-pressing habit. Today I give thanks for Hyrum and the joy he is to have in our home. He has always had an inquisitive mind and is eager to learn how things work. Of all my children he was the hardest one to change a diaper on because he simply couldn’t lie still—after a certain age our only hope was to change him standing up. Even today when you talk to him he usually walks circles around the room because he simply cannot stay put for any length of time. I guess for him there is just too much exploring to do to waste time sitting still (unless, of course, he is watching a WildKratts show)! He is eager to understand how things work and he has a very logical brain as he tries to figure out the world around him. One time he was asking me about the temple we got married in and whether it was pretty inside, and I told him that it was.  He replied thoughtfully, “Mom thinks it is pretty, but you think it is handsome, right?” It makes perfect sense since boys are handsome and girls are pretty!

He definitely has a left-brained mind and thinks very carefully through things whether trying to figure out how many days it is to his next favorite holiday or how many minutes until his next meal. His logical thinking was a great blessing in getting him to stop sucking his thumb. He was still doing it at age five and we weren’t quite sure how to help him stop given that he was very attached to it and that his two older siblings had stopped and restarted more times than we could count. It turns out that he just needed a good logical reason. One day at his grandparents’ house he came inside with a sudden huge sore on his thumb that we at first thought was some kind of spider bite. We didn’t know where it had come from, but we took him to InstaCare and puzzled them with it. They ultimately lanced it and drained it and it went away after a few days with some antibiotics. It turned out to be a staff infection, and we conjectured that he had had some very small cut in his thumb from sucking it, and then when he played in the dirt it must have gotten infected. We told this to Hyrum and that was all it took--he never sucked his thumb again! Combined with a very tender heart, his straightforward thinking also makes it hard for him to not take innocent jokes seriously. One time we had a friend over who jokingly had said to him that she was going to take his younger brother home because he was so cute. The next time this friend came over Hyrum hid downstairs from her for a long time because he was so afraid she was going to steal him or his brother.

Hyrum was in part named after Hyrum Smith, and the Lord said this about him: “And again, verily I say unto you, blessed is my servant Hyrum Smith; for I, the Lord, love him because of the integrity of his heart, and because he loveth that which is right before me, saith the Lord” (Doctrine and Covenants 124:15). To me that sums up our Hyrum as well—he simply has a pure heart and wants to do what is right. When a scuffle breaks out among our children, and I get differing reports of what actually happened, I instinctively know that Hyrum will tell us the truth. People, both his age and adults, are drawn to him because he just has a good heart. At one point after many months away from school because of the pandemic this year, one of his classmates’ mothers reached out to my wife and implored us to have Hyrum come to a playdate with her son because he kept begging his mom to be able to see Hyrum. Just this last week he brought home some notes from a girl in his class who in no uncertain terms declared her love for him. Well, she has nothing on my love for Hyrum and I express my deep gratitude to my Heavenly Father for sending us this little boy. His nonstop energy may drive us a little crazy sometimes, but his big heart and great love makes him such a joy to have in our family. He loves and is loved by everyone, and his innocence and the integrity of his heart is a constant reminder to me to be better and strive for more purity in my own life. We are so grateful to have our tender little Hyrum in our home!