The Inspiration Cycle

We moms want to inspire our kids. Just having children makes us strive to be the best versions of ourselves, examples we hope they’ll want to emulate. But in some ways, my kids have already surpassed that goal, and now, they inspire me. My 14-year-old son started a YouTube channel this summer, where he posts videos about the technical inner workings of Minecraft. (My son’s Minecraft YouTube channel.) For heaven’s sake, he’s even teaching himself programming so that he can create his own game! And my 13-year-old daughter started her own blog as a way to spread her love for Jesus and inspire (there’s that word again) others to do the same. (My daughter’s blog.)

All their lives, I have encouraged and occasionally pushed my kids to stretch themselves, to do more than they think they can, to be unsatisfied with minimal effort. Whatever they do, I want them to put their all into it. Whether they fail or succeed, I never want them to wonder what might have happened if they had tried just a bit harder. (Shades of my own guilt?)

Now, they are becoming adults and thinking like adults, making life more interesting than ever and keeping their dad and I on our toes. Example: my daughter said to me after she began her own blog, “You should start a blog, Mom.” She outlined a few reasons. Me: “I don’t have time. I don’t even have time to do all the things I should be doing now.” Ah, well. It’s true, if unoriginal.

But for reasons I’ll discuss at another time, the short of it is, I now have the time. Well, a bit more time, anyway. Let’s say a previously filled time slot is now vacant, and after a bit of thought and prayer, I have decided to put my introverted self forward in the form of blogging. So, daughter of mine and son of mine, the inspiration cycle has come round from me, to you, and back again. Thanks, I think.