For all the times I have heard people say that becoming a parent will change your life, I am still surprised by how that phrase has proven true. I used to think they meant the practical things, like quantity and quality of sleep, etc. I am realizing now that, as love has the tendency to do, the parent/child relationship not only changes your lifestyle, it changes you. The instinctual desire for the very best for our child carries with it the weight of responsibility to be better ourselves (hopefully).
In the spirit of these musings, my hubby, RM, coined his latest motto: “Go after it.” His zeal is inspired both by the fact of our daughter and her unique person. Her existence has motivated a kind of urgency to examine who he is and what he wants to be doing with his life, but he also sees in her potential for something that he wants to exemplify. From the moment she arrived, he has described her as “scrappy” which, roughly translated, is some combination of passionate, resourceful, tenacious and, yes, a little rugged. While I failed to see how she could possibly have demonstrated this quality (still learning to hold her head up at the time), he confidently made his prophesy, as a father will do. His hope for her is that she unapologetically will go after the things that God has given her the passion, desire and ability to do. In turn, he is newly motivated to do this in his own life.
Being a fearful fence-sitter myself, I am convicted that while it is easy to express well-intentioned desires for our children, our true values are demonstrated by how we live. So, I am praying for the scrappiness of faith that I may truly “go after it”, whatever It may be.
KFM


