Dear Daughter, Life Lesson Number 1: Treat Others The Way YOU Want To Be Treated

Dear Caitlin,
     It is so nice having you here for a week and a half.  I love the fact that you are here to watch movies with me and drink hot chocolate in bed in the mornings.  It has been fun to actually have you sit here in person while I talk to you instead of just seeing you on Skype.  I'm so glad that "Baby Jarrell" has been moving around so much while you have been here; I'd like to think it's because he/she has heard Ya Ya's voice and can't wait to get out here and meet me!  As we have talked this week, I have realized that you too will now be in the unique club we call "Motherhood".  And with its membership there are many things that you will need to know in order to equip yourself for the job.  I hope that I have already taught you many of these things through my own words and actions over the years and feel that I most likely have since you have grown up to be such a well grounded young woman.  But today, I will offer a bit of advice that is absolutely necessary but also one you will find difficult to adhere to as a mother:  "Treating others the way YOU want to be treated."

The Bible tells us this and I believe that most of the time you do well with this, however, when you become a mother this will become an increasingly harder thing to do.  As that little baby grows inside your belly and you feel it move around, a bond develops; one that is stronger than anything I've ever known.  You will want to nurture and protect that child from every injustice and evil in the world.  And in your quest to do that, you will want to hurt those who hurt your child.  This is only human nature and you should realize that fact.  However, God tells us that we are to forgive (very difficult when someone hurts your child...) and we are to treat others the way WE want to be treated.  Hmmm...THAT is definitely NOT an easy one.

Although treating people nicely when they do not treat you nicely is difficult always remember...IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO.  And at the end of the day, you will always feel good about what you have done; thinking of others before yourself.  I know that you have seen me struggle with this myself over the years, especially in your high school years.  When someone treated you unfairly, all I wanted to do was to hunt them down and make them pay!  HEY!  I'm only human too.  I have had to pray MANY times for God to forgive me for my words and thoughts concerning this.  But the importance of this lesson is not only for you; it is for your child also.  Our children watch us and whether we want them to or not, they become just like us.  As we watch our children grow over the years, we often times see bits and pieces of ourselves in them...sometimes things we would care not to see.  And so, what I guess I am telling you is that by YOU doing the right thing, your children will see that and also do it.

This was just a little "Life Lesson" that I was thinking about and decided to put down.  It is something good to remember and I hope that it will help you with your passage into motherhood...


                                                                                                I Love You To The Moon...And Back!
                                                                                                                           Mom