My Inspiration
“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion. ”
…………What do you want in their suitcase?
Recently, I was lucky enough to attend a retreat for homeschool mothers thinking about teaching children entering the high school years. One of the mothers, who had just sent her son off to college, stood up. It was her turn to speak to the group about what inspires her. She quietly rolled a suitcase up to the front of the room. It wasn’t too small, but not very big either. Probably the largest size that you can carry onto a plane. She set it on a table.
We all looked with extreme curiosity at the suitcase, trying to figure out what she was going to say about it. She quietly informed us that,
“this is the suitcase that you will send your child off into life with. What do you want it to be filled with?”
We all sat quietly, not certain what she was asking. She spoke up again, “it is not a lot of space, do you want to make sure math skills are in there? Sentence diagramming? What about spelling? Certainly you want them to know how to spell. They need some kind of sport skills. Music skills are a must.” We nodded our heads thinking like teachers and mothers and wanting to make sure our children had the skills they needed for life.
But then she continued with,
“but will there be room for a love of God? A love for and drive to learn? Faith? Truth? Honesty? Will power? Grit?”
The list obviously goes on and on. We very quickly caught on and started a very different list of priorities for packing our child’s bag for life.
This short talk created an amazing shift in perspective for me. I started to try very hard to focus on what should be in each of my child’s life luggage (and, in fact, mine). Things like a drive to work hard, humbleness, compassion, kindness, God!, love of learning, discipleship.
What do you want in your child’s life luggage?