Here's To a Great School Year!

Today I sent my two oldest kids to school.  

One is in the 5th grade, the other in 4th.  

Tomorrow my baby starts kindergarten.  I really think I am okay with that.  I don't expect to cry.  That being said, my eyes just filled up with tears.

This kids growing up thing is harder than I remember it being when I was the kid.  This parenting thing is not for the faint of heart, that is for sure!

Last night I wrote each of my older kids a letter, it's the first time I have ever done that.  I told them a little bit about when I was a kid and then I told them that I wanted them to do 3 things this year.

1.  I want them to be kind.  This seems kind of obvious I know, but it is harder than it sounds.  Being kind is not always easy.  Sometimes being kind means being different, it means going against the crowd, it means loving the unlovables.  And that can be really hard when you are in the 5th or 4th grade.

2.  I want them to be brave.  Because sometime being kind takes bravery.  I told them not to wait to feel brave, because that feeling might not come.  Bravery is an action, it is a decision to do something that is hard, something that might be scary.  And going against the crowd, doing something you know is different, opening yourself up to teasing, can be really scary when you are in the 5th or 4th grade.  I told my kids it's not brave if your not scared.

3.  I told them not to worry about being the smartest, prettiest, funniest, coolest kid in class.  Just be the kid God wants you to be.  Because it doesn't matter how big or small, how old or young you are, there is something/someone God wants you to be.  He expects BIG things even out of little people. 

That is what I pray for them this school year.  The academic thing, that will happen.  What I really pray for them is that they start living out their faith, that they start intentionally being the people they were created to be.  And I couldn't ask for a better school year than that!