One of my favorite things in life is watching my kids grow. When they are little, it’s a matter of watching them physically grow along with watching their personalities, character, interests grow. Twenty-three years later, I still love observing my kids growing in so many ways.
My girl, she’s always been a quiet, gentle spirit. She has always been so easy going and just goes with the flow. Some things that would drive me crazy, she was able to just let it roll off her. I admired that! As she has grown, she just never needed to be in charge, be the leader, be the boss (not saying I have any other kid that has those needs). Guiding her, coaching her, Joe and I have tried to balance encouraging that sweet spirit with teaching her to be assertive and bold. We always said, she was born to be the baby, because she just had such an innocent sweetness.
This year, especially the last 6 months, I’ve seen her stepping out, realizing that she can be a leader. She looks at situations and remembers what it was like to be the younger person in those situations, and realizes that maybe she can be a leader or an encourager in that place now. She doesn’t have a burning need to be the center of attention, but she desires to find a way to contribute and help. She has had the opportunity to help in some classes with some tiny dancers over the last few years. And she has discovered that she loves to teach the little ones. Every day I’m excited to see where God will lead Clara. I love watching her grow and learn and shine her light.
Then there’s my boy. The child was born with a big personality. Someone asked me the other day how he liked coaching. I told them he’d been waiting his whole life to be the boss of someone! Haha! He used to be just horrified at the thought of being up in front of people. He absolutely refused a solo in 4th grade, much to his music teacher’s disappointment. Even in high school, he just didn’t like to be up in front of people to speak or anything. He’s always been bold to speak what he believes. But not in front of an audience.
In college, God grew him in so many ways. He faithfully sought God’s will for his life. His major changed several times. God kept refining him. He was a normal college kid, in the sense that he made mistakes, was humbled, had successes, learned a lot. We were thrilled when he was hired to teach middle school Bible at a private Christian school. AND, he would get the opportunity to coach. It has been so fun watching him this first season coaching 7th and 8th grade basketball. He’s had so much fun getting to know these boys and watching them grow. And when he puts his arm around one of his boys to encourage them, gathers them up during a timeout, tries to control his desire to do his happy dance at the end of a hard fought win…this mama gets all the feels.
MoreThanAllTheNumbers 