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Dear daughters,

Dear daughters,

You are so incredibly loved, from your precious, sweet-smelling heads down to your less that sweet-smelling toes.  You two are absolutely my dream come true.

But, here's the thing, sometime when you dream, you forget about the scary parts.  And, parenting has lots of scary parts.  Intermingled with the joy-filled, gut-busting laughing, tickly, snuggly parts, and the mom-look, stern-voiced, chore-enforcing parts, and the boo-boo soothing, lap-making, tear-wiping, comforting parts, and all the other delicious morsels that make up family life, are the parts that make parents (and guardians) scared and nervous.

Because all we want is to experience you experiencing joy.  And we are scared because we know the reality is that life isn't all joy.  That it is up and down, and back and forth, and round and round.  We know that life is beautiful, but that it is also hard.  And the scariest thing is that we can't make it any easier for you.  

All we can do is our very best to equip you.  So, dear daughters, two things your daddy and I want to equip you with, tools that will help you build your life are these:


And it is important that you have both.  They are a pair (just like the two of you).  And they are both grounded in love (just like the two of you).  You see, to us, passion is all about the spark.  Whether it sparks your curiosity, sparks your empathy, sparks your indignation, or sparks your creativity, passion is vital because it grounds your ambition and keeps your going even when obstacles get in your way.  And babies to quote the old church song, "Pass It On" by Kurt Kaiser, "It only take a spark to get a fire going."

But the problem with passion by itself is that all that light from the fire you started can be blinding, and your daddy and I don't ever want for you to be blinded to the needs of others.  Compassion towards others is what ties us all together, which is what our Creator intended, darlings.  We learned in the very first book of the Bible, that God knew it wasn't good for humans to be alone, so God created community, so we can help one another.  Babies, you are God's creation, made in Her image, and God has called you to help.  Help in any way you can to anyone you can.  

We don't want you to get so caught up in your passion projects that you become too inwardly focused.  We want you to do you, of course, but at the heart of that has to live compassion.  Compassion that burns as brightly and fiercely as your passion.  

And conversely, we don't want you to be so outwardly focused that you forget to honor what is important to you.  The Bible also tells us to honor and practice our own gifts and strengths, and that by doing so, we honor the Creator of us and those gifts.

So be women who can embrace the AND.  

Passion AND Compassion.

Beautiful AND Hard.

Scary AND Amazing.

And, here is another dream of mine...

Sisters AND Best Friends.  

With more love than your will ever know,

MOM


Click here to download Passion and Compassion doodle.
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