Where to begin? Let's just go for some recent stuff. I am still (and always will be) so proud of you. We watched you in the nativity today. Obviously you had the main role - Inn keeper number 3 - we were so proud and pretty predictably mum cried!
You also started school and you love it. Miss Bown says you're awesome, popular and bright and as I said we are really proud of you! You love Deadly 60 and dressing up to rescue people and animals especially the deadly poisonous adder rattle snake vipers. You also love dinosaurs, lego and playmobile. I love playing them with you and running round the house with you although I think school must be really knackering as you are often really sleepy by the time I get in. I need to try to get home earlier I guess!!
This weekend we are starting a new tradition of making Christmas crackers together for the family which I'm excited about as doing anything together is really fun. I think you are down for drawing duties and selecting lego models for each cracker. I've pulled buying miniature drinks for the adults and getting the banging explosive bits!
A great man died this week - Nelson Mandela - he taught tolerance and forgiveness, I hope one day when you are older you will read about him and understand how important these things are. Here's a quote that he used in his inauguration (He borrowed it from someone else but let's say it was his eh!)
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
I don't mind what you do, but be confident that you have a secure identity not always known and recognised by others, and importantly not defined by them. You have an identity in God and you can have a freedom in knowing that. Don't feel you have to be like others or tear yourself apart to be acceptable. You are perfect. When you have a child you will realise that they are perfect and they do nothing to earn it. That's how I think about you and how you should learn to think about yourself. Not arrogant but accepting that you are who you are and that is always enough.
This is a quote from another good guy to read: -
“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life
Me and your mum have learnt this first hand. Life is great now and finally me and your mum aren't defined by what we have been through. We are genuinely as happy as I think a family could be. Thanks for being awesome xx
Big hugs
Dad x
