Going With Your Strengths

Everybody has them....strengths and weaknesses.  I know I sure do.  I think it's really important to embrace them; to know when the sky is the limit and when you have limitations.

God put me on this Earth for a reason and I felt the calling early on.  I love children.  I love to teach and I love to learn.  My "talent", as it were, is to raise and educate children in many capaciities.  I have been a mom since the age of nineteen and have spread my children out so that I have had a child under 10 in our home almost every year since 1985.  I have done childcare in my home for not only my own children, but for nieces, nephews, cousins, grandchildren and friends.  I have worked in daycare settings, been a nanny, worked in private preschool settings and in public elementary school settings.  I have been a team mom, a coach, a cooperative educator, a home educator.  I have been a Girl Scout leader and a Boy Scout leader.  Whatever it is that I am doing, you can usually find small children near by.

I know that many people as they age, my husband included, just don't get it.  "Why do you want to continue to be around kids?  Your days of raising kids are almost over!"  It is my sincerest wish, hope and dream that my days "raising", educating, loving and learning with children will be what I am doing on my dying day.  To me they are not a burden, but an incredible gift.  They do take from me.....time, energy, patience I don't always have....but they give so much in return.  A hug, an "I love you", a lesson learned, an idea conceived, a memory made....they are all constant rewards of working with a child.  To me, children keep me young.  I need to be active, alert, on my "A" game all the time.  They never let you slide, lol.  They demand your love and attention even at those times when you are not sure you have any to give.  But watching them grow....seeing my sweet sons and daughters as helpless newborns, chubby toddlers, willful teens and now grown adults....how can you put a price on that? (And I am not forgetting my Dakota....he has lots of challenges and rewards in store yet!)  I have been blessed to have the opportunity to home educate.  Educating my sons has been...I just can't put into words the feelings....Imagine when you look at this incredibly smart person and you know that just about everything they have learned, they learned from you!  Wow!

Raising kids, educating them, loving them, kissing boo boos and wiping noses don't pay the bills.  They aren't respected things to do in alot of circles.  You often don't leave the house, sometimes for days and when you get into bed at night, more often then not your "to do" list is longer then it was when your day started, but it is my calling, my gift from God.  When I die, I hope that there are lots of people at my funeral and that some of them will stand up and say "I have known her since I was a baby and she played a big part in the person I am today".  I hope they remember the hugs I gave and the fun things we did, the lessons they learned and the love they felt.  I hope my own children and grandchildren recount my unconditional daily love and support for them and that they have felt loved every single moment of their life.  I hope they have so many memories they can't list them all.  I hope they see me there, in everything they do.

Children are a blessing and God's blessing to me is that I understand that and embrace it with all my heart.  I am good at what I do and for that, I am grateful.  So bring them on......grandbabies, great nieces and nephews, great grandbabies, cousins, friends, my kids friends' kids lol.  I have so much love to give and things to teach them, adventures to share.  I can't wait!










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