It’s a new school year and things will be a bit different for us. You see, our 17 year old daughter has decided not to go forward with playing Basketball. “Who cares!” you may say.
But I had big dreams…
When we have kids, we dream BIG don’t we? As they grow, God shows us their gifts and talents and as the Word of God says, “train up a child in the way they shall go, and when they are old they shall not depart from it.” I could talk a lot about what that means…their faith for one thing, but it also mean to train a child in their gifts and talents too.
I knew somehow after my older kids had grown that they would go their own way and be productive citizens and love God wholeheartedly. I’ve always been so proud of the wonderful adults they have become.
Then along came our younger ones and somehow, I got lost. Thinking that since I was now a “professional” parent AND a “professional” Christian, that God would give us supernatural children that would somehow be “different” from the rest.
I know! How corny is that!
But I had big dreams…
I thought I had done all the “right” things, had the “right” attitude and parenting style. The “right” amount of church and the “right” amount of bible teaching. I mean…we were straight out of Little House on the Prairie.
After canning, grinding, growing gardens and all of those fun amazing things for a few years, I realized that Little House on the Prairie didn’t have cars, showers, blenders, refrigerators and all of those kinds of conveniences.
So I gave up the big dream of being like them and began to embrace and be thankful for our modern lifestyle and it wasn’t really me and so I grew weary.
Never the less…
I had big dreams…
When my daughter was in 2nd grade she began to play a little Basketball at the Boys and Girls Club. She had fun and she was even pretty good. We enjoyed when Basketball season rolled around. Each year she became more and more amazing and skilled. It was crazy how good she was.
She loved it. We dreamed of how she would be in the WNBA and how she would receive scholarship offers from the colleges of her choice. Then one year…only one season…she had a not-so-great coach and her love for basketball died.
We’ve been pushing her along these past few years…because she is amazing. Everyone loves to watch her play…because she is so very fun to watch.
We had big dreams…yes we did.
We couldn’t let her not play, because what would happen to our dreams? What would happen to her?
We had SUCH BIG DREAMS.
We always told her that she was more than Basketball. That she could do and be whatever she wanted and succeed.
We didn’t live out those words because
We had such big dreams.
After many, many hours of conversations with our daughter and many tears, we’ve decided to give up our dreams and let her follow her own.
She’s not really sure what those dreams are yet…but whatever they are, I know she will be wonderful because ..
They will be her dreams and not our dreams.
It’s time to let go of our dreams and let her have her own…
It seems simple but it’s not.
With all our hearts we want her to love God first and be all that she was created to be and by letting go of our dreams, I’m pretty sure she’s going to get there just fine.
