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