It's All Worth It

Yesterday as Claire and I were walking home from the park, I was thinking about motherhood, and how it truly is all worth it.  Sure, we have our days when we try to plan fun activities (ie: going on a bike ride), and your child doesn't like it as much as you do (ie: they start to whine, so you turn back, and they cry the rest of the ride home), and we get frustrated because it feels like our efforts aren't doing any good.  But when you sit back and think about it, the majority of the time is happy and good, and it's amazing how quickly kids learn and grow, and every effort that we put into our kids is all worth it.  Every book that we've read since day 1, every outing, conversation, explanation of an art piece, every walk, smile, laugh, extreme amount of joy when they learn something new...every little thing I think is all worth it.  It might not all make a difference, but I really believe that it's all worth it because it's then when your child knows that you love them.  Claire is learning all kinds of new words (most recently:  Ernie, Hippo, Pizza, Please (Pees), Thank you (Tayyu), Shock (Shck)...), and it's so so fun to see her process it, or to see her try a new word and then realize that I understand what she's saying and get so proud of herself.  And it's in these moments, when I realize that it's all worth it, and that all those newborn nights, and dealing with the tantrums, and the tiredness which I don't think will ever go away, is worth it.  And I'd do these past 17 months all over again to see the joy that she gets from going down the slide on her bum all by herself and then getting a shock at the bottom like she did this morning at the park.  I love the song by Hilary Weeks titled "Who You Are".  It's a bit cheesy, but the chorus is so true, and sometimes I find myself singing the chorus on tough days.  It says, "

Believe in what you're doing

Believe in who you Are

And hold tight to the truth

that you're a daughter of God

Believe in who you're becoming

Believe in who you Are.

(v2 is better than v1 in my opinion)

It may seem simple

All the little things you do

but the lives you touch matter so much

and there's no one else like you

and Father needs you to stand tall and faithful

to be all you can be

if you could see what He sees

I love it and it's so true.  Believe in who you are.