Showing posts with label Anna Grace. Show all posts

"True greatness is a passionate love for God that demonstrates itself in an unquenchable love and concern for others."

What is your definition of success? Is it having beauty, wealth, and fame? Is it being a stellar athlete, a successful businessman or businesswoman, or having a large home? What is your definition of success for you, for your children? Do you want them to get a good education, go to college, have a great career, marry someone who is handsome or beautiful, buy a nice-sized home, and then have beautiful grandchildren for you to admire and love? Is that REALLY all there is during our short time on this earth?

Before you navigate away from my blog and this post, don't get me wrong, those are all wonderful, admirable goals, and to be honest, those are some of the goals we have for our children and you probably have for yours. There is nothing inherently wrong with these things. But, I have been challenged to dig deeper, to look for more out of life than the 'American Dream' and to GIVE MORE back to life, to this earth that is our temporary home.

I am reading a fascinating book that questions our society's 'norm'. This book questions the definition of success for us, our children, and our families. The name of the book is Raising Kids for True Greatness: Redefine Success for You and Your Child by author & speaker, Tim Kimmel. I am only on the 2nd chapter of the book, so beware, I have not finished it, so my review may be a bit premature. But, it HAS started me thinking, what are we teaching our children and what is our own definition of success?

Again, please understand where I am coming from. we want many of those things for our children... successful in school endeavors, going to college, marrying a Godly mate, if that is God's plan for them, and having a joy-filled life. But, are we aiming too low if those are our only standards? Also, for those of you who know me best (and for Anna Grace & Austin's teachers out there), I am STILL going to push them in school to do their best! I am not quite giving up on Harvard just yet! ;)

But, this book is challenging me to teach my children what true greatness is, not in mine & Joe's words to them, but in our every day actions and in our service of time, energy, and efforts. In the introduction, Dr. Kimmel tells the story of how a lady named Agnes became known to the world as Mother Teresa, largely due to the influence her mother and father placed on teaching her about true greatness and not about mere success. Let me wrap up my 'thoughts' with a few excerpts from the book, which are questions the author asks after sharing the story of Mother Teresa...

• Why do we dream such small dreams and expect so little from our children?
• Why do we assume that we have such limited capabilities as parents?
• Why do we assume that great peolpe have to be the exception rather than the rule when it comes to our efforts as parents?
• Why don't we think that our children can ever take rank among the truly great?
• Worse, why do we sell God's bigger plan for our lives so short?

I have the passage below posted in my office and I am going to post it in our home as well. It defines greatness by an entirely different set of standards:

• Success looks inward; true greatness looks upward, then outward.
• Success is about my agenda; true greatness is about God’s agenda.
• Success accommodates selfishness; true greatness celebrates altruism.
• Success is about receiving; true greatness is about giving.
• Success worships what it sees in a mirror; true greatness grieves over what it sees through its windows.
• Success pays off for now; true greatness pays off forever.

I know that teaching our children to strive for true greatness and to live passionately is a goal that Joe and I have. I don't know the future or what the Lord has in store for our family, but I would like to think that I can look back 20 years from now and see that we taught our children about true greatness and passionate living! We hope that we can instill in them a passion for loving the Lord and giving back to others. What will you look back on and see in 20 years? For those of you who know me well, you know that I believe, inherently, that we are all AWESOME and destined for GREAT things!

My apologies to my friends who heard this story last week at our Wednesday night 'Family Gathering' meeting at church...

Have you ever read the book titled The Important Book written by Margaret Wise Brown? It is a sweet little book, written by the author of Goodnight Moon that seems rather straightforward and simple upon first glance. But, I learned this week that it has a deeper, hidden meaning, so to speak. I spent some time reading to my children last week at school. I read in each of their respective class rooms. I loved it! I love spending time in the place where my children are 7 or 8+ hours a day. The teachers there are the BEST and I love getting to know them as well as the children that Anna Grace and Austin are around each day.

Well, I read The Important Book to Anna Grace's 2nd grade class one day. An example of the verbiage from the book is below:

"The important thing about snow is that it is cold,
It is white,
It falls from the sky,
It melts, but
The important thing about snow is that it is cold."

(I can't give you and exact quote because Amazon won't let me see the inside of the book anymore. They think I am trying to steal copyrighted material, but I digress!)

So, Anna Grace comes home a couple of days later and tells me that she is working on a book about herself in her class! She is so excited about this fact. She says to me, "Mom, I worked on my Important page today." Then, she says, "Mom, do you want to know what I wrote on my important page?" I said, "Yes, honey, I do!" She was so excited. Then, my daughter speaks the following words to me...

"The important thing about Anna Grace is that she loves God,
She likes to go to church,
She loves her family, and
She likes to read, but
The important thing about Anna Grace is that she loves God!"

She was beaming from ear to ear with a HUGE smile!! Just as I am right now, tears came to my eyes and I was speechless, which is a RARE occurence for me! My daughter wrote down and proclaimed, in her public school nonetheless, that the most important thing about her is that SHE LOVES GOD!! How that blessed me and encouraged me that day. It encouraged me to know that all Joe and I have been working to teach her and Austin is sinking into their minds and hearts. It was amazing to be encouraged in that manner on a day when I needed to know that all of this motherhood and parenting stuff is worth it!! (I am still wiping the tears from my eyes as I write this post....)

So, I started thinking, if my employer or my friends & family asked ME to write a page about what is the most important thing about me, what would I write on my page? What would I say is the most important thing about me on my 1 page that I would be given? A better question is this, 'What would my friends, family, and children say is the most important thing about me?' And the best question to ask is, 'What would my Savior, my God say is the most important thing about me?'

You see, it is one thing for ME to say what I think is my most important thing, but it is quite another for those who live with me and fellowship with me to say what they see as the most important thing about me.

I am still thinking about what would be on my 'Most Important page', so my 'answer' will be saved for a future post, but I ask you, what is YOUR most important thing? What would you write on your page...

What ARE you writing on the pages of your life during each precious day you are given? We need to remember this about our days on this earth, my friends...

• They are numbered,
• They are precious,
• They are being watched by others, and
• They ARE telling a story about each of our most important things....
  

I do have to share a story that describes Anna Grace perfectly! We arrived in town on Friday evening around 6 PM. You know the routine for the first night at the beach--- a van to unload, bags to unpack, and a grocery store trip to be made. Well, we had to do all of that AND get something for dinner. The 4 of us were rather hungry. So, Joe and I kept talking about how to best accomplish all of this in the most efficient way. Oh, yeah, and we had 2 children simply BEGGING to go to the ocean or the pool or something FUN!!! After all, you don't come to the beach to go to the grocery store!! So, I sat down with Joe in the living room of the condo and he said, 'We need to come up with a game plan for tonight.' Then, we started planning. The kids were doing their own thing - coloring, talking, whatever- in a different room of the condo. But, only a minute into our conversation, Anna Grace walked over and she said, "Mommy and Daddy, I have a 'game plan'. Here it is!!" And the picture you see below is what we saw...

Joe, Anna Grace, & Austin under the famous 'Toomer's Corner' tree...

Joe & the kids at the main Auburn sign

Austin and his cousin, Houston, enjoying a lazy day at the pool...(I KNOW-- they are both names of towns in Texas- we've heard all of the jokes before. And, no, we don't know where Dallas is!!) Gracie having fun in the pool, too.
Austin & Gracie at the beach
Austin, Daddy, & Gracie enjoying the pool also!

Anna Grace & Austin posing for mom before a day of fun in the sunAnna Grace, Chelsea (our neice), Austin, & Houston (our nephew)

Getting ready to enjoy a night out at Lulu's

The view of a sunset sky from Lulu's... BEAUTIFUL!!Austin is ready for his night of fun at Adventure Island...Our 2 'Goofy Golfers' here...