My wish for you

Each new school year splashes the harsh evidence in my mama face: My kiddos are growing up. My time with them at home is short.

The new {bigger} clothes, new {bigger} books and new {bigger} childhood dilemmas are proof – along with the higher number associated with their grade in school. I find myself behind the camera, taking those classic first-day-of-school pics, with a similar sensation to back-to-school jitters … because I feel for them and feel through them. It must be yet another facet of a mother’s love.

I find myself scooping up the remains of summer … all the dandelion fluff the forest floor can trap …  and wishing right alongside of them – and, naturally, I’m wishing {praying} for them.  The pure white wishes and prayers rise toward heaven, like incense in temples of old.

“My wish for you, my sweet children, is that you’ll see and be your true self. You have such power and potential within you! Your virtue and kindness and love can change this world – it really can! Really. You can!”

A mother’s love is empathetic and eternal. Mothers deeply feel their children’s struggles … we sense their trepidations and fears enlarging, we’ve experienced the same “what if?!” worries, and we know the pangs of self-doubt that come with discovering one’s self. On the other hand, mothers also foresee grand glimpses of our children’s potential. Our little ones’ strengths and sweetness surface so easily to our mama minds. And when our hearts are in the right place, we see those little people as they really are: Children of God, with God-given talents and characteristics … angelic soldiers in His army … moldable messengers of His love. As their mothers, we’ve felt the impact of their goodness on our own hearts, and we know the eternal impact for good they can have on God’s kingdom.

So, how do we help them see their potential? How do we help that wish and prayer become a reality? Here’s an inspired quote, from a beloved apostle who left this world for a more heavenly sphere this very week. He gives us three clues for seeing our true potential:

“With all my capacity I encourage you to discover who you really are. I invite you to look beyond the daily routine of life. I urge you to discern through the Spirit your divinely given capacities. I exhort you to prayerfully make worthy choices that will lead you to realize your full potential.”
– Elder Richard G. Scott (“Realize Your Potential,” Ensign, Nov. 2013)

Let’s break that down:

1. Look beyond our daily life. Seeing our daily doings with spiritual eyes is a task I’ve been consciously focusing on for the past 8 years. In fact, I have a book coming out about it called, “Everyday MOMents: Discovering Christ in the divine details.” (It’ll be available early 2016.) Starting the day with a prayer that asks for eyes to see my routine moments with spiritual eyes has made a HUGE difference in my attitude, knowledge and perspective! And I can help my children do this too, as I point out what I’m seeing. In turn, they follow suit and adjust their lenses.
2. Discern divinely given capacities. We each receive divine attributes and characteristics … identifying them and developing them will allow us to reach our divine potential. As the apostle Peter said, “According as his divine power hath given unto all of us things that pertain unto life and godliness … For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2Peter 1:3, 8) We can point out our children’s divine gifts, which will encourage them to develop those gifts further. As an elementary-aged girl, my mom always told me how smart I was … and I wholeheartedly believed her! I just knew I was one of the top students in my class …. Until years later when I found a collection of standardized tests proving my mediocrity. But her words weren’t wasted and they weren’t lies – I had listened and so I had lived to become that smart student. I studied and I tried, and I gained knowledge – reaching closer to the intelligence potential within me.
3. Make choices that lead to our potential. Bottom line, it’s up to our choices. As mothers, we’re stressing that all the time! There is a cause and effect; a consequence for each choice. Heavenly Father graciously gives us tremendous gifts and potential – but it is our choice of what to do with it. The parable of the talents (Matthew 25) tells us that we will be held accountable for what we do with our gifts. We may bury them or we may grow them. It is up to us. We can provide opportunities for our children to grow their talents, but ultimately it is their choice … just as it is ours.

So my wish continues to drift upward … and may we make that progression too! May we each – young or old – realize and grow to our eternal potential. May the Lord say unto each one of us, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord,” – just as He did to the man who doubled his talents and grew toward his potential (Matthew 25:21).

That is my wish … and my prayer.