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 seven, 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

And year after year
Pictures fill page after page
They never really grow up
Still your baby at any age
The first time you hold 'em
It's like you see God's smile, what a 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

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 feel God's smile, what a smile

When you have a child

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