be you

I've said it once (actually, I've said it a million times) and I'll say it again...my boys are SO OPPOSITE that you would never believe they are from the same parents! I see their differences in a variety of ways every day and this last week when I was gathering dishes after Sunday lunch I saw yet another glaring difference. Ashtyn's plate vs. Maddox's plate. Ashtyn likes everything portioned into its own section, nothing touching and everything contained. He neatly dips his food into his ketchup and takes teeny tiny, neat little bites. Maddox, on the other hand, mixes his food into combinations that normal people simply don't think of. I'm convinced he eats some of these icky combos just to hear his brother scream "EEEEEW!" during lunch. When Maddox gets done eating the entire area around his plate AND CHAIR is covered in food. I even found food in his hair yesterday!

If our home had a mission statement it would simply state "be you." I think we try so hard to not be ourselves as children and teenagers and even young adults only to finally discover that it's so much easier, more peaceful and more fulfilling to be ourselves and then we spend the following years working our way out of the box we put ourselves in trying to strip away everything we built up so that others would think we were someone we're not. If we would just be who we are from the beginning life would be so much more fun and fulfilling. As a mom, I want to appreciate the differences in my boys. Ash is neat for a purpose. God will use that. Maddox is "messy" (or what I like to call a free spirit) for a purpose. God will use that too! From how we learn to how we dress to how we communicate and even to how we eat we are individuals and I hope to cultivate those differences in my boys, help them appreciate those differences in each other and show them that their individuality is wonderful.