Learning from an unlikely source

When I became a mom, I was fully prepared to impart my vast (yeah, I got a little cocky) wisdom to my child. I thought of all of the talks we would have, all of the stories I would tell, all of the advice that I would give. I thought for sure, my child would marvel at my knowledge and sit at my feet begging for more. They would have this thirst for lessons, and I, being the great mother that I hoped I would be, would be able to satisfy that thirst.

Well here’s an update, I’m not too far into this parenting thing, and I can already see, that is NOT how it’s going to be. I mean, my baby isn’t even two yet, and I know that my vision was all kinds of idyllic. See here’s the thing, while I was preparing all of my great talks, and envisioning the great reception they were going to get, God was laughing at me. Down the line sure, I might have a few great pep talks, my son may even marvel at my vast wisdom (hey, ALL the cockiness didn’t go away). But in the meantime, I was not prepared for how much my son was going to teach me. I was the mom, I was supposed to be giving the lessons. But I have this little baby, who is teaching me so much, and guys, I just didn’t see that coming.

My little guy is learning to move; Rolling over, crawling, and now walking. During the process, he’s done more than his share of falling, but everytime he falls he just gets back up. Dude doesn’t even shed a tear, he’s just like ‘well that didn’t work this time, but surely I’ll get it this next time.’ In my life, I rarely ever have that type of persistence. If something doesn’t work out for me, if I’m being honest, I usually quit. A business venture doesn’t work? I take it as a sign that maybe, it wasn’t meant to be. A recipe fails, I tell myself and others that I don’t know how to cook that particular dish. But not my son, he learns from his mistake and just tries again, simple as that. He doesn’t take his failure personally, he just gets this look of determination on his face. He’s teaching me resilience.

Also, my son has no fear. Now this could be a good thing or a bad thing, but he’s genuinely not afraid to try ANYTHING! When did we learn fear? I mean some fear is justified and even smart, but other fears? Not so much.

My baby boy doesn’t hold grudges. He’ll be mad that he has to go to bed, screaming, crying, all of it. But then he wakes up, and he’s so happy to see me. The same person he was just upset with, the same person who made him do something he didn’t want to do. He can’t wait to see me and give me kisses. Sometimes I have to stop and think, am I like that? Can I get over something so easily? I should be that way, we all should. How much better would the world be, if we learned to not hold grudges? Can you imagine?

Besides all of these lessons, (and guys, there are a ton more), what I’m really learning is this. If you’re open to it, you can use every experience, and every person, no matter how young or old, to make you a better person. What if we stopped focusing on what’s wrong with other people, and stopped wishing they would change to be more like us? I think if we did that, we’d have the time, and capacity, to stop and figure out what we could learn from them, and how we could use their ‘flaws’ to improve ourselves. It’s like that Michael Jackson song, ‘Man in the Mirror’, in order to make things better, we have to start with ourselves.

So to my beautiful baby boy, thank you for everything you’re teaching me. You’re young, and I’m still ready to teach you all that I can in hopes that you’ll grow up to become a wonderful young man. But now, because of you, I’m open to learning from anyone I can. Because just like you, I still have a whole lot to learn. To everyone reading this, whatever situation you’re in, good or bad, why not take a moment to look around, and see, ‘What can I learn from this?’ ‘Can I use this to make me a better person?’ I’m sure you can, I have no doubt.

Have you ever learned something from an unlikely source? Let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear your story. Have a great day! Make life sweet and learn all you can.