I've recently felt a stirring in my heart and mind around the themes of kindness, brokenness and the generations. I believe that kindness and brokenness are interconnected in a strong, yet unexpected way. And it's absolutely our job to reach down and grab the hand of the next generation, teaching them and admonishing them to do good, seek better and humble themselves. Because the truth is that any certain idea or value is only one generation from extinction at any given time in history.
We must ask ourselves as we raise our children...
What values can we not afford to lose in the passing of the baton?
The Trend
It's a popular idea, right now...kindness. Have you noticed it? Everywhere you look, there's admonishments and encouragements to "Be Kind". Yet, I wonder how many of us know exactly how to go about achieving that kindness within ourselves. Genuine, true kindness that spills out unexpectedly and causes everyone around us to stop and stare. My next post will go into this in depth. But to introduce the conversation, the most important place where kindness must be modeled and taught is in our homes.
Day in and day out. In the expected AND especially, the unexpected moments.
Now truly, the world around us is a different place then it was 100, 50 or even 20 years ago. We are up against a whole lot that our mothers and fathers didn't experience. But that is always true with each new generation. However, there's been a shift unlike any other between these last two consecutive generations, and while that can seem foreboding, I also believe we are the generation best equipped to flourish during this given time in history. Technology and social media have potential to bring about true healing or true catastrophe, and we are a generation of adults standing in the doorway deciding which way it will go. But we can't exactly call our moms to ask them how they dealt. Will we allow our children to learn to live behind an online persona, compartmentalizing human interaction with online presence? Will we teach them that one is more valuable than the other? And if so, which one?
My Charge to You
My entire idea for this space is to reach into your life through the means of your screen and encourage you in teaching your children to live kind and invitational lives. You'll model it for them, yes?
Deal.
Lives marked by kindness and invitation. This, my friends, is tough work.
So let's get started on this road to remember ourselves. To remember what it was like walking into a classroom and looking for a friend to sit with. To remember how it felt to receive a letter (in your mailbox!) from a friend in another state who you met at summer camp. To remember the sting from the tears of a confrontation that went wrong. And the sweetness of forgiveness. Notes between classes. Back massage trains. Holding your best friend's hand and jumping from a cliff into a cool lake and sitting around a campfire making cricket calls with your fingernails.
This life can feel so full when we are living it. When we are doing it together. When we aren't bent over our cell phones in waiting rooms and scrolling through the most divisive comments on a social media post.
May we be filled up ourselves. May we fill up those around us.
May we pass a world to the next generation that is filled with kindness and bravery and invitation and beauty. Where fear gives way to freedom. Where invitation is the standard and loneliness becomes a memory.
My Why
My passion is about engaging, restoring and encouraging the family. I believe there's an assault taking place on the family, specifically motherhood. Â And my desire is to restore the dignity, the respect, and the appreciation for the sacred and beautiful things that take place within the four walls of our homes. The teaching and admonishing that takes place in between the tickle fights and the diaper changes. In the first few years of my motherhood experience, I saw motherhood as laundry and meal prep, and while yes, those are part of the job description, they're not the heart and soul of our grand purpose. I'm here to help each one of us reclaim our title, examine what's gone wrong and move forward in a new way. That our children, our husbands, our coworkers and our communities would rise and call us blessed.
Because we are.