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| Photo Credit: Wisdom 4Winning |
Our sweet ‘n sassy trailblazer (#3) started kindergarten
this year and as I watched the excitement continue to grow in the weeks before
the first day of school, I was prepared for the enthusiasm she would take with
her, but I could not have predicted just HOW MUCH this little girl had in her! As
the Mr. captured one more picture of each one of the kiddos with the school bus fast
approaching, he caught {in a single moment} every bit of happy that has ever
run through this girl's veins.
Without one ounce of hesitation, she raced off to the school
bus and fearlessly boarded with her big sister and big brother; and in a blink of an eye they were off and the mom thoughts started racing … I wondered
how it was going, I wished I could be a fly on the wall to take in every candid
moment that was taking place {I love catching the moments when they are
completely unaware that somebody is watching, it’s during these times you can
see straight into their tender hearts :)},
and I hoped her excitement would last FOREVER!
All morning while #4 and I anxiously awaited for the bus
to bring them home, I caught myself taking multiple glimpses at this moment of sheer excitement and pondering how this priceless image truly captured what it
meant to be childlike. Maybe the saying should be everything you ever need to
know in life can be learned from a kindergartener… heehee! Well, on that day in
that moment, our 5 year old did remind me of everything that is good and true
in this world around us.
The first day of school has since been more than a few weeks
ago and even since that moment, I have taken notice in my own reactions and
emotions. It has made me realize that as our kids have gotten older and I have
seen (in them) some of the not so pleasant side-effects of the way I react to
situations and that I really needed work on reigning some of
these in, like over-reacting in
frustration, worry, disgust, anxiousness, impatience, fear, judgement (I say
over-reacting because all of these emotions are normal and we all deal with
them on a daily basis, so I have been very cognitive not to discount any
of these emotions in myself or our kiddos because it’s not about minimizing or
ignoring these but instead working through them and knowing how to handle
them).
Nonetheless, as I have worked hard to be “quick to listen,
slow to speak, and slow to anger” (James 1:19) in order to set a better example
for our kiddos in how to handle these more ‘negative’ emotions, there have been
times when I have be slow to share in the joy, the happy, the fun, and the
excitement when instead at times like this my reactions need to be immediate!
Seeing of our baby girl's immediate reaction to her first day of school, hit my
heart like a mother-load reminding me I need to make sure I never let go of the
child within that is trusting, curious, natural, fearless, simple, resilient, forgiving,
kind, guileless, happy, naïve, sincere, engaged, honest, frank, energetic, candid,
fun-loving, innocent, artless, and unguarded. Of course, there will be times when life will try to stifle these, but in those moments be sure to let your child out and don't hold back!
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