Guest poster Lucia this week shares with us what she would like her daughters to take with them in life…
To my four daughters.
I spend many hours watching you play and listening to your chatter and as much as I want to protect you from the harms in this world, I also want to teach you how to deal with the hurt each of us are guaranteed in this world. Some lessons we learn from others, other lessons only through our own experiences. This is what I’d want for you…because I love you and I want you to be kind and caring human beings….
I want you to appreciate the possessions you have in life, not because I want you to be materialistic, but because I want you to realize that you have no right to any of it. It’s a blessing to have what you want and one that can last for a lifetime or be taken away in an instant. True happiness surpasses all you could ever own and so does loneliness and sadness…it might make life easier, but it does not necessarily make life happier. To appreciate the beauty of a sunset or the love of your true love, you do not need a fat bank account, and those are often the happiest moments you’ll remember. No one denies having money is nice, but if all you’re doing is working to earn money and never actually living life with simple acts of life you will never know happiness.
I want you to respect your elders, not because someone deserves respect because they’ve been alive for longer than you have, but because they deserve respect through having survived the experiences they’ve had, the hurt and the joys they shared. Experience is worth more than years, but you can never catch up with the life experience of a 90 year old person…respect the things they’ve seen that you will never see, respect the lessons they’ve learnt and forgotten that you still have to learn.
I want you to be kind. Not so that you can be used as a stepping stone, but so that you can learn the value of a smile, of a kind word and realize kindness has more power than anger. That when you act towards someone with anger they close down but when you act with kindness they open up.
I want you to be impulsive. Not because it’s a romantic notion to throw caution to the wind, but because it teaches you to not worry about the little things that over time can become a huge burden and cause anxiety and no amount of time and planning can conquer it. The best things in life is realised within an instant. Planning gives you time and opportunity to consider possible negatives and changes your focus onto ‘planning’ everything to perfection, instead of enjoying the perfection of that moment.
I want you to be strong. Not because I want you to fight for feminism or stand up for women’s rights, but because I want you to stand up for what you believe is right and what makes you happy, without the fear of being judged for not wanting what you are told you should be wanting. I want you to stick to your convictions in the face of being told you’re uncool or weird or not normal. I want you to strive to never be the same as everyone else around you. Be you!
I want you to have faith. Not because faith will save you, but because faith is stronger than hope. Faith is believing because you know, not because you feel. Know that and hold onto knowing. Feelings come and go like the wind, knowledge lasts forever.
I want you to experience the love of a man and loose it. Not because I think it’s better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all…but because when you loose the wrong one you are better prepared to fight for the right one. You learn when to give and when to take, what to compromise and what to stand up for. You learn to love regardless.
I want you to love Jesus. Not only because I believe He will unite us in heaven when this world has passed, but because when you know Him, you will be all you ever need to be to draw others to Him. And you will be the best you you could ever be.
Lucia blogs at Fairies and Rock . You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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