Toilets and my Toddler

Elder Russell M. Nelson addressed BYU students in a devotional (March 29, 1987) and said,

"I watched some three-year-old children playing one day. I saw them lapping water from the sidewalk after it had spilled through a neighbor’s garden. I suppose the germs they ingested were incalculable in number, but not one of those children became ill. They were defended by their bodies. As soon as that dirty drink reached their stomachs, hydrochloric acid went to work to purify the water and protect the lives of those innocent children."

The entire address was about the magnificence of the bodies that our Heavenly Father has created for us.  He talked about our senses of sight and hearing, our hearts and our brains and our body's amazing ability to repair itself.  He also gave the above little story to demonstrate how well our body can deal with germs.

Recently, David became safe on the stairs.  We don't have them blocked off anymore as I feel comfortable letting him climb from our main level up to the bedrooms whenever he wants to.  He is surely enjoying this new freedom and the ability to explore a little.  During the day our family spends most of our time on our main level.  Since there is not often someone upstairs to keep an eye on David in his explorations I've been trying to get everyone to keep the bedroom and bathroom doors shut when they are not up there….especially the bathroom doors. 

We are not very good at it yet.

This morning we found David upstairs in the bathroom brushing his teeth…with his sister's toothbrush.  Ok - that's no big deal.  But he was having a grand old time wetting and rewetting the toothbrush in the toilet in between brushings.  So disgusting!!  His onesie was sopping and he was so so mad when we found him and took his toothbrush away. 

How grateful I am for the magnificence of the human body.  My children have all been exposed to all kinds of germy things as they've grown up, and they all seem to survive.  Yes, we need to keep our homes clean and sanitary, yes we need to practice good hygiene…  but germs happen.  Little children explore and do messy things.  Thank goodness for our body's built in self defense system.