What I've learned from my kids

(Kristi and Philip ready for take off at the Oympic Training Center)

   All though life, we're learning, education doesn't stop at a high school graduation, it's actually just beginning.  Sometimes, I've been surprised who I've learned from and what I've learned from them.  My children for one, are ones I've learned a lot from.  Even when they were small children, I remember learning lessons in patience, perseverance, prayer, unconditional love and consistency.  As they've grown older, I feel I've continued to learn from them, as I hope they still learn from me too.

   As my children have stepped into adulthood, I've been amazed at how God has worked in their lives and the things they've learned and have in turn shared with me.  It was while in Colorado this past month, that Philip shared something with me that so blessed me, and I've learned so much from it.

   We were talking about the times in our lives when we feel we've failed, that Philip made this awesome statement. "There's really only winning and learning in life.  If you've failed, it just means you never learned from your mistakes.  If you've learned from the mistakes, then it's not a failure, you've grown."  The more I thought on that, the more I liked it and believe it is true.    We all make mistakes, if we didn't we wouldn't be human.  There was only one perfect man and his name was Jesus.  The rest of us are VERY human and make mistakes consistantly, but that doesn't mean we're failures.  Like Philip said we can learn from those mistakes and turn a failure into a learning situation and gain from it, making it a win.

   Kristi and I were discussing this on the way to a wedding this past weekend in South Dakota.  I asked her, in light of what Philip said, what have you learned in all that we went through in the past couple of years. (Not that it was a failure or a mistake, just a VERY hard time.)  She said, "I learned, we can do anything."  I asked, "How or why do you come to that conlusion?"  Kristi replied, "If we can survive Dad's dementia, and all we went through, there isn't anything we can't do."  Wow! What an attitude!  In a situation that could make a lot of kids bitter and angry, she's using it as a spring board, to knowing God can get us through anything. 

    I learned from my kids, what the Bible has said for a very long time; "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phil 4:13