Be the Person

Folks, the voice of reason has a mustache.  And stuffs her face with pasta.  And I'm not talking about me.

As a homework assignment, Lucy was asked to come up with some sentences using her spelling words.  The only requirement was using a few words from the spelling list in each sentence.  And this first spelling list was a pretty easy list, words like “the” and “you.” 

Billy was overseeing the homework that afternoon.  When I got home, he was anxious to show me her sentences.

Before I saw them, I thought maybe he was proud of her handwriting.  We’ve been working at strengthening her handwriting.  Because when you have bad handwriting and leave a note for someone about caring for your pet, they might start calling your dog Boxter instead of Baxter.

He said, “Look at her first sentence!”

She wrote, “Be the person you want to be.”

No kidding.

Where does she come up with this stuff?

I asked her what it meant.  She said, “You can be whoever you want to be.”

She’s right.

We get to choose.  Life’s circumstances are often out of our control.  But we still get to decide the type of person we want to be.

And who do I want to be?  I guess I’m still figuring that out.  I’m not sure we ever figure it out.  We take it day by day.

Every day we get to make a choice.  Sometimes those choices seemed forced-go to work, go to school, clean Elwood Wilson’s litterbox, clean Elwood Wilson’s poop on the rug….  These are still choices.

We get to decide the person we want to be through those choices.  Are we going to have a positive attitude?  Are we going to make time to love on our family?

And as my sweet lady goes through her day, I wonder about what person she wants to be.  What choices is she making?

I hope she chooses to look at the bright side when others are whining.  I hope she looks for the best in everyone.  I hope she makes time to love on her mama.