Have you ever looked back and thought about how much you learned from those early Elementary school years? I am not talking about the exact year of the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, or all those symbols you learned in Geometry that you have never thought about again after test day. I am talking about the foundation poured that shaped the way you built the rest of your life.
Our first born, baby girl, is not a baby anymore. She is in her last year of Elementary School this year. Only one month left to go, how did we get here so fast!?
My husband and I were invited to a school assembly to watch our daughter receive an award for being selected as a Student of the Month for displaying the Character Trait: Perseverance. As we sat in the back and observed all the kids filter in, single file like ducks in a row, I took deep breaths trying to soak in this moment. Our chance to see our two kiddos at the same school assembly together. Our sweet and spirited girl sings with pride as she warms up with the Honor Choir on stage, as our shy but confident boy appears bored as he watches from the crowd.
I saw our daughter’s teacher walking towards us with a big smile. She bent down, got close and shared that she could have given our daughter any of the different Character Traits over the course of the school year: Adaptable, Critical Thinker, Effective Communicator, Confident, Empathetic, but that she had known for a while that it would be Perseverance. She shared our daughter works hard at everything she does, and even when things get really hard, she never gives up.
As tears started to build up in the corners of my eyes, I felt the weight of this moment.
There are so many things we need to teach our youth. Without perseverance, how can they build all of those skills and important character traits? Good, worthy and fruitful things in life take time. It takes time to learn new things, to fall, to get back up, to fail, to overcome, to try again, to accept, to keep growing, to repeat over and over, as day by day we become who God uniquely designed us to be. Good, worthy and fruitful things take effort and dedication.
Without perseverance, I wouldn’t be here today staring into the beautiful eyes of our babies with a heart so full of gratitude it could burst.
There are many times I’ve wanted to give up. Times I was just not so sure how or if I was going to make it through. Life can be so challenging, so ugly, so cruel. If it’s not good, God is not done yet. If it’s not fruitful, then you are still needing to be pruned.
Perseverance is not just the planting of the seeds, it is found in the tending of the soil, sprinkled in the watering, shining with the sun, perfected in the pruning of the weeds. The real magic happens under the surface.
In a world full of immediate response and instant gratification, we need patience and gratitude for the time given to become what is intended to be. The true beauty is in the waiting, in the growth, in the ability to feel that pure joy is found in the process.
