Bud
by Susan York Meyers
He was so little, so squirmy, and I
was so unsure. I’d been babysitting since the age of 12, but this little guy,
this baby that was mine. It felt like I’d never held an infant before. What if
I screwed up everything?
In that hospital room, it was just he
and I. One of us had a blowout. No problem, I’d changed diapers before. I laid
my son down, took off his diaper and looked around the changing table.
Wipes… there were no wipes. I checked
both the top and bottom racks. Nope. I had a half changed, squalling baby lying
in front of me, and I had no idea how to proceed. I was a failure as a mother.
All the emotions of the last two days caught up with me, and I burst into
tears.
That’s when the nurse walked in. She
paused a moment and then very carefully asked, “What’s wrong, Hon?”
“I can’t find the wipes,” I managed
to get out.
She smiled and walked over. “This is
what we use.” She picked up a few thin blue disposable cloths. “Let me help
you.” She dampened the cloths while I tried desperately to find my lost
dignity.
I proceeded to change my still
wailing baby. The nurse took him, put him on her shoulder and patted his back.
“It’s okay,” she told me. “Bud’s just singing the blues.” I’ve been forever
grateful to that nurse. She could have made me feel tiny and incompetent. But
she didn’t. She took the time to comfort both mother and child.
And you know what? My son has been
“Bud” since that day in the hospital. He’s my Bud, by Bud-o-mine. Except for my
dad, I’m the only one who’s ever called him Bud. Of course, I didn’t mind
sharing the name with the greatest Papa in the world!
I don’t even think my son knows how
he got his nickname. That a nurse who came to his mama’s rescue on his 2nd
day on this earth christened him Bud.
And that nurse? She never knew she
meant so much to me that she gave my son his nickname.
We never know when one little thing
we do, good or bad, is going to affect someone. A frown, a smile, a push our
way through a line or a helping hand – they all make a difference.
What if your smile is the only one
someone receives today?
What if your indifference is the
breaking point in a long line of being pushed aside today?
It’s been called the Golden Rule.
It’s quoted and requoted until it almost seems trite. But Matthew 7:12a is one
of the most important verses in the Bible. “So, in everything, do to others
what you would have them do to you.”
Notice, it doesn’t say wait until
someone is kind to you to be kind to them. Or, be patient only if you’re given
patience.
It says, “Do.”
And also notice it doesn’t say, “Then
it will be done to you.”
It says, “Do.”
There is no guarantee that you will
receive in kind. But think of how wonderful our world would be if we all
followed that simple command.
Thankfully, for me, the nurse
followed that command. She made a new, overwhelmed mother feel better.
Bud and I both appreciated it.