Two syllables that strike fear in every parents heart..

Uh-Oh.

Whether followed by the impish grin of a toddler, or the ummom of an older child, we all know that uh-oh means trouble.

Sometimes it's just a clean up job, like the two year old who decided to wash herself in the bathroom sink with an entire warehouse club sized bottle of shampoo. Those are the moments you'd want to take a picture of.....if you still had a camera. The camera in the toilet was an uh-oh of an entirely different level.

It was more on par w/ the toothpaste in the charger of the cell phone. The phone still works. We just switch batteries to charge it.

But those little kid uh-ohs aren't anything compared to what happens when they get older.

After toilets and toothpaste come markers and scissors. Some kids give themselves sharpie art "tattoos." Almost all kids color murals on the walls. Some kids cut their hair. Other kids cut their dolls hair. A few, especially creative kids make snowflakes out of their bedsheets. Uh-Oh.

The middle childhood uh-ohs are more forgotten projects, homework w/ food spilled on it, younger siblings in the backpack & missing library books. Now our oldest is approaching the tween and teen years, I'm wondering what uh-ohs lie ahead. Will they still be fixed with a hug, a smile, and maybe a trip to Wal-mart or Lowes? I certainly hope so, but fear it won't be.

As a mom, am I really prepared for what lies ahead? Where the minor uh-ohs are still minor, a bad haircut or a forgotten chore. It's the majors that are intimidating. Instead of a camera, it's a car. But uh-ohs are still mostly about things. So hopefully God will give me the grace to remember an uh-oh is an opportunity to learn. To have a positive attitude about mistakes, about consequences, and about moving on. That uh-ohs are opportunities to encourage our kids to grow, accept responsibility, and live in grace.

Now I hear mom! It's time for me to go. I just hope the next to syllables aren't uh-oh.