My Life Changer - Graduation Edition

“There will always be a reason why you meet people. Either you need them to change your life or you’re the one that will change theirs.”  My friend sent me this quote one day.  My response was, “or maybe both.”  I have been blessed with so many amazing life-changers along the way, but one of the most important is my daughter, Maddie.   

 

From the moment she was born, she was so attached to me.  When she became a toddler, she was my shadow.  Everywhere I went, she went.  Everything I did, she did.  Everything I said, she said.  If I turned around too fast I would step on her.  I learned very quickly that I had better be a good example because there was this little person mimicking everything that I did.

 When she was about four, I remember her begging to come into my room while I was studying for a bible class that I was teaching at the time.  I would always tell her, “Go play, Mommy needs to study!”  She would cry and say, “I will be real quiet.  I want to study, too.”  So I would let her in and she would have her little bible and notebook and watch me read and study, then she would pretend to read and study.  What a sobering moment.  I held all the power in my hands to mold her into a strong woman of God by modeling for her what that was. 

 

When Maddie started school, she was introduced to bullies.  Of course as a parent, your first response is retaliation.  When your baby comes home crying day after day, you want them to defend themselves.  One day in anger I said, “If she hits you again, you better hit her back!”   Do you know what her response was?   “Mama, I can’t do that.  That is not right.”  Another sobering moment.  (Sometimes we hate when our kids speak our words back to us!!  )  But she was correct.  Retaliation is never the answer.  God is over the revenge department, not us.  "Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord." Romans 12:19 NIV

  

 

 

Now my little shadow has grown into an independent, strong, mature young woman. In just a few days she will be graduating from High School and then going away to college in the fall. This time in our lives is so bittersweet. It is sad because I will miss my baby, but it is also so exciting to see what God has planned for her future.  Having her for a daughter has definitely changed my life.  Knowing that she would pattern her life after mine has caused me to be a better Christian, a better mother, a better friend and a better wife.

 

 

 

 

Today, I want to encourage every parent that is reading this to remember that the eyes of your children are always watching you and learning from everything that you do.   If you want to have God-fearing, loving, obedient and respectful children you must be God-fearing, loving, obedient and respectful.  Children will not become who you TELL them to be, they will become who you SHOW them to be. 

 

 “Train up a child in the way he should go;

even when he is old he will not depart from it.” 

 Proverbs 22:6 ESV