March 30, 2011

• Grow Up

  This is one of those nights I could stay up til two in the morning.

  Kids are sleeping, Brad and I just finished watching American Idol and he’s off to bed. Busy day in the O.R. tomorrow, he says. He routinely gets up at 5:30. If it’s not for his men’s Bibly study, it’s for rounding, or…..wait for it………

  a workout.

  Without a doubt, if I got up at 5:30 to work out, I would most certainly be sick to my stomach. Don’t know how he does it.

  I’m a nine a.m. workout kind of girl.

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  My mind is going in so many directions that trying to go to sleep is pointless.

  The older I get, the more I think the issues you face in life are pretty much the same whether you are 6 or 36.

  Maybe it’s a matter of women not ever really growing up. I mean really growing up. Getting older, calmer, wiser, more solid, more graceful, and more confident.

  Isn’t that the goal?

  How many of us really get a handle on insecurities, for example? Do we really learn where our significance comes from and where our sense of worth originates or do we just learn to mask our emotions and control our outward responses?

  As I parent my children, I keep thinking about how I am preparing them to deal with “real life issues”. The hard, cold fact is that most things they face in first grade, they’re going to face in their teens, twenties, and thirties. The “real” starts early.

  I never want to minimize the feeling of being left out because it’s a legitimate complaint, (I’ve experienced it recently) but I want to teach them to process that bad emotion, cry it out, and then move past it.

  Stop dwelling on yourself. What are you thankful for? Who can you bless? Who can you be a friend to?

  I don’t want my kids to find happiness in being popular, having the right friends, having the right brand of clothing, or having the right house.

  You can be in a sea of people you call friends and be lonely.

                You can have fancy clothes and feel not good enough.

                              You can be in a great house and feel dissatisfied and discontent.

  Doesn’t it always blow your mind when you read something about a beauty queen struggling with an eating disorder because she thinks she’s not skinny enough or pretty enough?

  I want to raise sturdy kids. Kids with strong character. Kids that think beyond themselves.

  So to my children:

  You will, most likely more than once in your life, be excluded from something. Please don’t be the one doing the excluding. You will sometimes be taken advantage of by someone. Be sensitive to people. There are reasons people behave badly. It’s not an excuse but have compassionate eyes to see past the rude behavior. Don’t find your identity in anything other than who you are in Christ. Have fun where you are, and love whomever you’re with. You will be the life of the party if you live in freedom. Freedom from everything that is not God in you. Freedom from the “green slimy stuff”, as Grandma calls it. Don’t get caught up in things that don’t last. Everything that is not eternal can be gone in the blink of an eye. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. True contentment will be with you in whatever state or condition you find yourself. It’s a choice and you have to practice it.

   Contentment vs. Covetousness

  Realizing that God has provided everything I need for my present happiness (I Timothy 6:8)

  
  

   It’s midnight and I can’t hold my eyes open any longer. Today was busy. Tomorrow morning is going to come early….I think I see a nap on Thursday’s calendar.

   

  ~stacey

   

   

  • 11:40 pm
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