They Are Watching You

Baby

Every parent has been there.
Sacrificing everything for our kids.
This is what we were told that good parents do.
Give up everything to serve.
Our children are our future.
Our children deserve our undivided attention.

Who told us that?
Where did that come from?
Is this attitude really serving our children?
What will they grow up to believe that life is about?

They are watching you.
They are learning from you.
Children are brilliant.
Children are powerful.
Children know far more than we give them credit for.
Children are full of dreams.

They have more ideas in in an hour than you have all week.
Most of them cannot be realized in the real world.
They will figure that part out later.
But it only takes one.
One amazing idea, and a dream.

Are you teaching them how to follow those dreams?
When they watch you, are they learning how to succeed?
Or are they learning something else?
Are they learning that being an adult means giving up on themselves?
Are they learning that being an adult means being tired and grumpy?

Don’t let your children be your excuse.
Let your children be your inspiration for greatness.
They are watching you.
They are watching you work hard to build the future.
They are watching you rebuild your body.
They are watching you take the time to eat healthy.

There are many ways to serve.
Serve by setting an example.
They are watching you.

Sappy Stuff

young love

I’ll occasionally share some sappy crap, but I’ll try to keep it to Saturday mornings.

Here is something from a few years ago…

When I was 17 I was head over heels in love.

All the adults around me told me that I was not old enough or mature enough to feel love.

I thought I was the one young person who knew better.

Neither of us was right.

I was in love, there is no doubt.

What we sometimes fail to admit is that love is not a quantifiable thing. Nor can it be contained.

Why have so many writers and poets struggled to describe it? Because no one can.

It grows and changes and evolves in each of us.

When I was 17 I knew how to feel love, but I did not have the maturity and capacity to understand it and manage it.

I am 40 now.

I have more capacity for love than I had at 17. I have more capacity for love than I had at 30.

There is not some magic age at which we finally understand love.

As we grow and learn, our capacity to love increases.

To my children:

Love.

Love with all you have.

Let that love go when it does not align with your life goals.

Feel the pain and grow from it.

Then love again.

Let that love grow, and know that what you feel now will grow into something larger.