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I remember as a young teen, lying on my bed and dreaming of all the things I was going to achieve one day. I was always a big dreamer... I was going to be an actress, an author, a missionary and a teacher... all at once! I was going to have a huge impact on so many lives. I was going to change the world.
And then I grew up a bit and went to university, and trained to be a teacher. I was going to be outstanding. To be the teacher these children never forgot. I was going to be the one who made a difference in their lives. I was going to be the one who heard the voices of the struggling children, who somehow showed the difficult children the right way to go. Who didn't forget the children who just quietly get on with it and never get noticed. And I was going to change the world one classroom at a time.
And then I had children. And became a stay-at-home Mum. My horizons aren't actually that huge anymore. There's not a lot of big dreams you can have in piles of laundry, boxes of toys and an ironing pile. There aren't that many miles you can travel when you're tied down to a 9am drop-off and a 12pm nursery pick-up. There aren't that many books you can write when you're up to your eye-balls in potty-training, tantrum-controlling and shepherding little hearts.
Sometimes you wonder where all those dreams about changing the world went to.
And then you realise that you are actually in the privileged, God-ordained position of having a profound impact on two little lives. It may not be millions of readers, thousands of theatre-goers, or hundreds of school-children. But two little lives. Just two.
What an honour.
And perhaps it is possible that I may never have an impact beyond these two little people. That actually the greatest thing I may ever do is bleach the toilet, cook meals and model to these two little girls what it means to live a life of sacrifice.
That the greatest thing I can offer them is the Gospel.
And if, with God's help, I can do that? There is no greater adventure I would want to be on...
I come back to this time and time again Claire. There is no more important job in the world than this but we can so easily forget it. You are here for such a time as this! lovely post x
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right, it's the thing I come back to again and again and the thing that gives me a happy heart for the really mundane bits of life; if the best thing I can achieve today is to provide a loving comfortable clean home then I can be happy in the scrubbing because it's more than just housework.
ReplyDeleteYour dreams are a bit the same as mine when I was young!!! Dear Claire you are doing a graet job to be a mum to your lovely girls and a wonderful wife. But keep on dreaming no harm in that! God loves you. x x x
ReplyDeleteYou are doing a great job my dear xxxx
ReplyDeleteClaire you're doing a great job. You're raising two happy children who will know they are well loved and will have had a great start in life.I just love how you stimulate their imagination.
ReplyDeleteI've got a blog post going round in my head about what we dreamt of being when we were kids and where that dream went. I think a lot of us dreamt of being wives and mums but then felt guilted into denying this, so I say enjoy it and remember the massive impact you have on your little ones xx
ReplyDeleteI stay at home 3 days a week and find the three school runs so restricting but I wouldn't change them for the world - as a full time teacher I would never have got those precious moments.
ReplyDeleteThis post is so powerful x