My Girl......talkin bout....My Girl....

Today I am going to brag on the amazing creature that God has blessed me with and that is my girl. Now my boy is just as wonderful for other reasons but that is a subject for another post.
My sweet baby girl is the most loving, energetic, inquisitive, stubborn, bubbly, outgoing, sweet, frustrating person I have ever known. I never thought about this when I was craving a baby all those years ago but it has recently occurred to me that as a parent, we have the most amazing gift of watching a real person grow from their first moment (or thereabouts) to the day that we have to say goodbye forever (prayerfully this will be when I go to be with the Lord and not the other way around). As a parent, it is an eye opening experience. I have been so caught up in the day to day trudging through motherhood that sometimes I fail to see the person she is becoming. Everyone of us, from the most beloved paragon of virtue to the most hated of villains, was a five year old child at one time. Have you ever just sat and thought about what went through the head of a five year old Billy Graham or a five year old Adolph Hitler? Were they happy children? If Adolph or Suddam or Osama had had happy childhoods with the same life experiences of the Billy Grahams or Mother Theresa's of this world, would that have made a difference? If I love my kids enough, teach them the right values, support them through every aspect of childhood, encourage their dreams and gifts, and provide a good example will that be enough? I can only pray that this is the case. I look at my childhood and even though it was very difficult and I had an abusive mother and a non-existent father, I still made it through okay, not unscathed but okay. I was blessed by a grandmother who knew the Lord and kept me in a church where I was exposed to other adults who showed me the life I wanted. I am definitely not one of those paragons of virtue that I mentioned earlier. I am a flawed, opinionated, big mouthed (comes from always having both my feet in there at the same time), frustrating, whining, pain in the butt person but by the grace of God, I am also a loving, caring person. Is it just in us from the beginning? I know the sin nature is there from the beginning. Being a parent has shown me that we do not have to teach our kids how to do wrong, it is there. The challenge is teaching them to acknowledge the urge to do wrong and make the decision to do right. I also think we have to let them know that we have the same urges to do wrong but have to make the conscious decision to do what is right.
Now, I know most of you don't come here to for deep thoughts and insight because that is definitely not the normal fare here in the kooky brain of this mom but occasionally I do have moments of serious reflection and this is one of those times. I love my kids so much that I sometimes forget what an enormous task God has charged us with in being parents. I thank Him that we are not going it alone and He is there with us. So for all of you parents out there, I say a prayer for each and everyone of you today. For all of you who are not yet parents or not planning to be parents, I pray for you too because I know that you are still influencing the adults of the future either as aunts and uncles or as friends of their parents.
Now on a lighter note, I've gotta get crackin' on this school thing. In addition to the phonics, math and writing that we do everyday, we are studying the planets and solar system (as much as a kindergartener can understand). I have found that in the years since I have been in school, we have lost a planet and gained several "dwarf planets" in our solar system. Did you know that Pluto is no longer a planet? We have eight planets and Astrologists have discovered what they now classify as dwarf planets. I am learning too. I had to modify one of the "facts" the book gave about space yesterday. The book is called "100 Facts You Should Know About Space". The fact given was that all the different galaxies were created by a "Big Bang". Now I told my daughter that this was a theory (what some people believe) and that they thought that way because they can't think of another explanation and they don't believe in God. Even my 5 year old is smarter than those people, she said "Momma, if it was an explosion, why is Earth round and not all broken up in little pieces?" Pretty smart huh?