When You Have A Child

When you have a child

You learn it's a serious business to have a little fun

You give grace and get forgiveness

Not seven times seventy but seven times seventy-one

And when you have a child

Those four walls you call a house

Take on a life of its own when you bring 'em home

You will cry and you will laugh

When they hurt it cuts you in half, it's your flesh and bone

*Chorus*

And year after year

Pictures fill page after page

They never really grow up

Still your baby at any age

And the first time you hold 'em, it's like you see God smile

When you have a child

And then boy meets girl

And perfume and gasoline rain on your perfect world

Curfews are often broken, thank yous aren't spoken

He's got the keys to that old Dodge, and she's wearing a corsage and her mama's pearls

*Repeat Chorus*

You pray that phone call never comes

And if God forbid how would you live

How could you go on and on and on and on

And year after year close the chapter and turn the page

Blue ribbons and losing season, flipping tassels on the stage

Oh but you don't need a photograph

You've got at least a million pictures of that smile

Oh when you close your eyes

When you love a child

Oh when you love a child