I’m the mom of a Kindergartener

Today was the first day of Kindergarten. I think I was WAY more nervous than Elisa was. She was excited. She even picked out a special gift for one of her classmates that she knew from pre-K to give her on the first day.
I just have to say that some days I am busting with pride over my child. Those of you that hate it when parents brag on their children – look away…here it comes:

I LOVE MY KID! I can’t hardly believe how great of a person she is shaping up to be. Every day she gives me so many reasons to be proud of her. She is kind, thoughtful, generous, SO smart, creative, loving, trusting, accepting, inquisitive (which I think is a great thing), brave and all those other things I wish I was all the time. Isn’t it weird how we can learn to be more Christlike from our children. She struggles with obedience and patience, but so does everyone. I wonder if my Heavenly Father every feels for me the way I feel for her. I suspect that He does. I look at her and am so proud of how hard she tries to please me and at how much she learns and applies every day. I hope that I can make God as proud of me each day. Gosh, my kid rocks!!

Water Wars

Yesterday when I got home I was exhausted – physically and emotionally. I had a busy day at work, my heart was aching w/ discouragement, the drive home was long – I was in a bad mood. My daughter immediately began asking if she could play on her slip and slide. My sister bought her a Spongebob slip n slide about 2 years ago that we finally brought out of the closet last week for Elisa to test out. Well my husband and I were both tired and didn’t really want to watch her in the back yard so she could play, but we knew that she wanted to and apart from our exhaustion there was no reason not to let her – so we sucked it up and set it up for her to play. She is still a little scared to run through the water (it might get in her eyes), but makes a very cute attempt at bravery by hitting her chest like Tarzan (sound effects included) and then running and landing on her knees near the beginning of the slide. Well, I wanted her to get wet – really wet – so that maybe she’d get a little more comfortable. So I scooped her up and landed her in the streams of water all the while getting quite wet myself. My husband thought it was funny, so I scooped up a big handful of water and threw it at him. Before we knew it we were in an all-out water fight. It occured to me that I had a huge stash of not yet broken-in water guns that I had bought at the beginning of the summer that were begging to be used. So I excused myself to go the restroom and came back a few minutes later sporting 3 very cool looking water weapons. I distributed them to the enemies and immediately opened fire. It was not long before they realized that I had only filled one w/ ammo – mine. WOOHOO!! Within minutes we were running around like wet, crazy people screaming “I’m gonna get you” and other such nonsense. It was the best time I’ve had in – well, I can’t remember how long. I think I won.

Bridges

I read a post this morning from Charlie Pharis, which was about a post from Randy Bohlender (too much blogging, I know!) that got me thinking. It was about the idea that our faith shouldn’t make it harder for us to connect w/ people that we don’t agree with, but easier because our faith allows us to see them the way God sees them – as a child of His. I actually feel kind of stupid that I’ve never thought of it this way before now. I mean, how completely obvious that b/c of what I believe I should be able to connect with absolutely everyone – simply because I care for them and don’t judge them. It makes sense. The biggest relationship barriers all seem to stem from someone not accepting or forgiving someone else because they are not the ideal person according to whatever standard society is using at the time.

Here’s what Randy writes:

Despite the fact that I suspect I disagree with them on most issues of major importance in my life, I find Larry, Marian, Andie (and prior BM whizGirl, Jess the Nurse) to be more than interesting. They are wonderful. My religious beliefs serve as a bridge, not a wall. As I told Marian today “My faith enables me to see you as who you are – a child of God…a God who is intensely interested in you. My faith compells me to love you.”

There is so much to be learned from this statement. When we can start seeing our faith as a bridge that connects us to others instead of a wall that separates us from them, we can be free to share that connection with them in a way that draws them to Christ instead of pushing them away. We need to be focused on connecting with God’s people – not judging them and on loving them, not ignoring them!