LIFE LESSONS ~ FOR PARENTS

1)  No matter how much they think they do, your kids will never love you as much as you love them.

2)  Of all the people in your life, no one can or will hurt you the way your kids do and will.

3)  When you are on your last ounce of hope, no one will bring you back from the edge by just walking into the room like your kids can.

4)  The less you expect from your kids, the happier your life will be. Everything they do is so much more special if you weren't expecting it.

5)  Understand that your children will never know YOU as well as YOU know THEM. Then accept that that is okay.

6)  When you encourage your kids to grow up independently, knowing their own mind, making their own decisions and living with the consequences, you are also teaching them not to need you. That isn't always a good thing. Sometimes it is a good thing.

7)  Of all the people in your life, no one can make you happier and no one will make you happier than your kids.

8)  When you find yourself aging, just a bit, some things become just too difficult to do alone.  Call your kids, but understand they also have lives and probably can't come right now.

9)  When they call you, drop what you are doing, they may not call next time. If they Do need you, go now.

10) When you think of all the things you have done in your lifetime, everything, if being a parent is the best thing you can remember doing, you have done your best. That is all you can expect from yourself and all the kids can expect from you.

11) When your kids make time for you, appreciate it, enjoy it, relish it and never punish them for not doing it more often. They are busy and have made time to be with you because they wanted to. Appreciate that.

12) When your grown children give you grandchildren do all the things you wish you had done with your own kids PLUS all the things you did do with your own kids. Just leave the parenting to your kids. Grandparenting is a lot more fun.

13) When your grown adult children disappoint you, keep it to yourself and find the silver lining, there always is one. Always.

14) If your grown children do something extraordinarily nice for you, hug them, kiss them, thank them and then thank God for giving you such thoughtful and loving children.

15) If you forget any of these, forgive yourself because you are human. You can hurt sometimes and burst with pride sometimes but you can never stop loving your children, even if they aren't so lovable all the time. Maybe you aren't either.

16) No matter what happens in your life, be thankful you are above the grass another day and that God gave you someone to love forever.  

Hey call your kid, give 'em a hug, even if it has to be a virtual one and know how blessed you are.

AND if by chance you ARE the child, keep these things in mind and make time to get to know your parents and make time for them, a little bit anyway.

Jo

Wildflowers Growing

Please leave your thoughts...I love when you do that!

This is the picture prompt for the week on GBE2 along with 'Growing Wild" as the word prompt and here are my wandering mind thoughts.

As I study this picture I see beautiful wildflowers in my favorite color combo for flowers. ( Purple and yellow, my yard is full of purple and yellow flowers, not wild, but rather planted and tended by my own hands.)  Here, I see God's work.  No human hands tending, lovingly or otherwise, just God's gift of beauty and unfettered growth.  There are no sculpted paths, no design plan and weeds just grow where the seeds fall with great abandon and fertility.  The blooms are startling amongst the green in front of the shimmering lake.  It is breathtaking and serene.  It is pure and unadulterated.  It is Nature in all her splendor.  Growing wild and free and there for all humanity to share or disrespect.  To photograph or paint or trample. He provides the canvas and we provide the appreciation or destruction.

It is exactly how we are created.  We come into this world free of all encumbrances. We have no moral code at birth.  We owe nothing to anyone.  If it is perceived that we owe our very existence to our parents, the obvious answer is, we didn't ask to be born.  They chose, either by actual decision or by actions to make this baby.  We are the 'gift' not the ever indebted product.

It takes a very short time for each of us to change into the people we are to become.  To grow wild.  Some of us do so and some of us never learn what wild means.  A soul roaming wild in this earthly world is free to experience life.  EXPERIENCE it not just LIVE it.  I feel sorrow for those who are unwilling or unable to let go of pain or sadness; they will never feel wildness.  I want to always feel pain when appropriate, always feel sad when appropriate and always then be capable of unbridled joy when it comes to me.  I haven't always grown wildly, not by a long shot.  Many years of my life were regimented years of doing.  Doing what I had to do.  Doing what no one else could or would do.  Doing what my children needed done.  Just doing, not experiencing.  In recent years, however, I have learned to Let Go and Let God.  One of the most important lessons I have ever embraced.  Growing Wild requires that I do that and then and only then can I see all the beauty around me.  Only then can I feel the love that showers me every single day.  I take the time to appreciate my time here in preparation for my next life.

I'm not in a rush to get to that next life, but I am ready when I am called.  I have lived a full and rich life with people who love me and have allowed me to share their lives.  Great friends and family have blessed me always.  I have had my share of pain and heartbreak and because of that, I love more deeply and with fewer reservations that I did in my youth.  I am growing wilder with each passing day with less human tending and more God's blessing.  It's a good thing to be in His hands today and always.

The natural beauty around me is not to be missed.  A free and loving heart is meant to beat in me and it does.

For us, just like the field of wildflowers...He creates the canvas for us to appreciate or destroy.