My dear mother-in-law took our little Jessica after her baptism for a few days. She likes to take the kids once a year for nearly a week to spend time with them and in my mind she mentors them. I am so thrilled by this as I find so much good and wisdom in her that she can pass down to my children. And I know that we as parents cannot do it all-we need extended family help. As we are young and still learning wisdom, our elders have so much of it already figured out to offer that I see them as a gold mine of knowledge. But what hit me the most was what my mother-in-law had to say about Jessica. Usually she is pretty honest and does a personality check on each of the kids while they are there. And quite honestly, she was nervous to take Jessica. (She has always been "the hard one") But upon returning she found so much good in her that me as a parent kind of knows is there, but we get caught up in the day and chaos of it to really pay attention to who are children are deep down. She had everything good to say about her and never paid any of my children so many wonderful compliments. My thoughts in sharing this are these; Why do we always find the fault in our children first. Why is that the first thing we notice and why does that seem to smother all the good? Jessica has so much good to offer as in my mother-in-laws words are, "there was never a more thoughtful, unselfish, gracious and helpful child-she was absolutely perfect." But in my day most of what I see is a little girl who is lost in the numbers of a big family. I am afraid all I have paid attention to is her lack of cooperation and tantrums (yes, at 8 years old). I am grateful for the insight and inspiration to find the good, focus on the good. I believe it is our job as parents to find the genius in our children and develop it. Parenthood is not just about feeding and cleaning them. It is about finding out who they are, their hopes and dreams and mentoring them through that so they can achieve their mission and purpose in life. It is my faith, hope and prayer that I can do this in all of my children. BIG to do list!!!

Perserverance

As I have watched my children each in the two year old stage and noticably my last one there now I have had something hit me. Children are determined. They don't give up, no matter how many times they fall when learning to walk, or crawl, roll over or even talk. They just keep going. When is it that most of us loose this quality of perserverance? One could only imagine what the world would be like if people maintained that courage and confidence that we all once owned. Where does it come from and why does it end? Just one of those things I hope to perserve in my children and adopt in myself.