A letter to my children

As my ducklings are starting school I am reminded of how important it is to help them grow in character. 

We've spent our time together as a family and our usual thing to do is go to Fudruckers for some burgers & shakes together before school starts. Then we  get our clothes, backpacks and such for the year. 

We also talk about how important sharing Jesus' love is at school.  Not by words. We tell the kids that they are missionaries just like Mommy and Daddy share Jesus, they are called by God to do the same. We show love-Christ's love. 

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Deuteronomy 31:5-7

This year, I came upon a letter from a great blog called Momastery that was written to a son that I loved and copied it to share with my children.  

The  original story is about a boy that the author knew and I was reminded of a  girl I knew in school.  

Happy School year!

Love,
Mel

Dear Precious Ones,

Today is a big day. You are in another grade of school! – wow.

Beccah, Will and Ashley – When I was in school, there was a little girl in my class named Gina.

Gina looked a little different and she wore worn outs clothes and sometimes she even smelled a little bit.  Her hair was often not brushed and tangled.  Gina didn’t smile. She hung her head low and she never looked at anyone at all.  She never did her homework. I don’t think her parents reminded her like yours do. The other kids teased her a lot. Whenever they did, her head hung lower and lower and lower. I never teased her, but I never told the other kids to stop, either.

And I never talked to Gina, not once. I never invited her to sit next to me at lunch, or to play with me at recess. Instead, she sat and played by herself. She must have been very lonely.

I still think about Gina. I wonder if she remembers me? Probably not. I bet if I’d asked her to play, just once, she’d still remember me.

I think that God puts people in our lives as gifts to us. The children in your class this year, they are some of God’s gifts to you.

So please treat each one like a gift from God. Every single one.

Sweeties, if you see a child being left out, or hurt, or teased, a part of your heart will hurt a little. Your daddy and I want you to trust that heart- ache. Your whole life, we want you to notice and trust your heart-ache. That heart ache is called compassion, and it is God’s signal to you to do something. It is God saying, Wake up! One of my babies is hurting! Do something to help!  Whenever you feel compassion – be thrilled! 

It means God is speaking to you, and that is magic. It means He trusts you and needs you.

Sometimes the magic of compassion will make you step into the middle of a bad situation right away.

Compassion might lead you to tell a teaser to stop it and then ask the teased kid to play. You might invite a left-out kid to sit next to you at lunch. You might choose a kid for your team first who usually gets chosen last. These things will be hard to do, but you can do hard things.

Sometimes you will feel compassion but you won’t step in right away. That’s okay, too. You might choose instead to tell your teacher and then tell us. We are on your team – we are on your whole class’s team. Asking for help for someone who is hurting is not tattling, it is doing the right thing. If someone in your class needs help, please tell me, baby. We will make a plan to help together.

When God speaks to you by making your heart hurt for another, by giving you compassion, just do something. Please do not ignore God whispering to you. I so wish I had not ignored God when He spoke to me about Gina. I remember Him trying, I remember feeling compassion, but I chose fear over compassion. I wish I hadn’t. Gina could have used a friend and I could have, too.

Dear Ones – We do not care if you are the smartest or fastest or coolest or funniest. There will be lots of contests at school, and we don’t care if you win a single one of them. We don’t care if you get straight A's. We don’t care if the kids think you’re cute or whether you’re picked first or last for kickball at recess. We don’t care if you are your teacher’s favorite or not. We don’t care if you have the best clothes or most toys or coolest gadgets. We just don’t care.

We don’t send you to school to become the best at anything at all. We already love you as much as we possibly could. You do not have to earn our love or pride and you can’t lose it. That’s done.

We send you to school to practice being brave and kind.

Kind people are brave people. Brave is not a feeling that you should wait for. It is a decision. It is a decision that compassion is more important than fear, than fitting in, than following the crowd.

Trust me, Love, it is. It is more important.

Don’t try to be the best this year, honey.

Just be grateful and kind and brave. That’s all you ever need to be.

Take care of those classmates of yours, and your teacher, too. You Belong to Each Other. You are one lucky kid . . . with all of these new gifts to unwrap this year.

I love each on of you so much that my heart might explode.

Enjoy and cherish your gifts.

And thank you for being my favorite gifts of all time.

All my Love,

Mommy (and Daddy too!)