Day 18

I had a HORRIBLE nightmare last night. H.O.R.R.I.B.L.E.!! I have vivid dreams all the time, but usually nightmares are only once or twice a year. Fortunately I was able to wake myself out of it, and after waking up crying, realizing it wasn't real, and that I was actually alive, I woke James up. I love that even now, God has given me someone who can pray for me any hour of the day or night for any reason, even a bad dream. Growing up, my parents always prayed with me when I had nightmares. And then they'd put on Christian music in my room so I would be reminded that God was with me, even while I slept. What a blessing! And now, at 35 years old, God still blesses me with little but meaningful ways!

Though I had grand adventures as a kid (I mean really, what 11 year old travels around the world? How many kids can say they never spent a summer at home until they were a Senior in high school?), it was the day to day stuff that my parents did that molded and shaped me. Of course, specific circumstances also shaped me, but I learned how to trust God, how to appreciate people, how to value beauty, how to say "I'm sorry" (that was a really fun lesson for my brother!), how to see God in the big and little, how to stick with it, how to work, how to get involved, how to multi-task, how to relax, how to enjoy the moment, how to try, how to take advantage of opportunities, how to appreciate family, how to serve, how to commit, and the list could go on and on and on, because of my parents and the day to day lessons they taught my brothers and I.

And now, as I parent my own two sons, I can only pray that the same lessons my parents taught me, and James' parents taught him, will be lived out through the two of us so that our sons will become men of great character. And, that will mainly happen in the day to day of our lives together. By reading them the Bible and modeling that it's important to us by letting them see us read it. By taking an extra 10 minutes to explain something they're interested about in a way that makes sense to them. By spending quality time with them, individually and as a family. By taking them with us to places like downtown to serve the homeless and travelling to Mexico to work, make friends, and learn that the world is actually really small. By telling them no, and explaining why. By giving them eye contact. By requiring them to do chores and work hard. By taking time to relax at home and on vacations. And by praying with them when they wake up from nightmares. It's the little things with my family that I want to steward well, because it's the little things that matter the most!