Who Am I?

Commitment. Integrity. Doing the RIGHT thing.

Psalms 25:20-21 O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.

Doing the right thing, the things we know are right? HUGE HUGE HUGE!! As Christians we are to keep our word, our commitments, to live a life of integrity and plain old DO THE RIGHT THING! Living that life shows that we are walking with Christ. Our character is defined by the way in which we keep our promises and strive to live right before the Lord and before men. This person, the person we show the world? The answer to the "Who Am I?" question.

This week we had a "Who Am I" moment at our house. Those moments, while seemingly easy to define on paper are so hard to see at times when we (meaning everyone) cannot back up and see the big picture of our life. Often that big picture is just blotted out by selfish wants.

Tasha made the middle school softball team. We are very proud of her and her hard work! The same night I stood in the freezing cold to listen to the parent meeting Tasha came to me with a cheer leading form. I had just finished that softball parent meeting where the coach explained we have two weeks until the first game. He of course intended a lot of work to go on in that short period of time.

As I looked at the cheer leading form I just shook my head. I told Tasha I would talk to dad (which I immediately did) and found he and I were on the same page so I called Tasha back to the living room to talk about it. It seemed very cut and dry to Scott and I. I explained we have no problem with her "trying out" or even being a cheerleader and had those try-outs been the week before softball? We would have been fine with her doing both. But, to try-out now would mean missing an entire week of softball and that was not okay. In our minds it was not okay even if the coach agreed, but we felt it was in poor taste to even ask. So our words to Tasha were simple. "It's YOUR choice....you are on the softball team, but it you want to try out for cheerleader? Fine, quit softball and tryout. It's one or the other because you are committed to softball and you cannot leave your team hanging a week."

I suppose I could spend about 19 paragraphs highlighting the comments, pleading, begging, anger, frustration, stomping off and the returning to revamp all the previous arguments. But I will spare us all and say this...it was the RIGHT thing. Scott is always quick to point out that life isn't fair and we truly cannot do everything we want...but we can choose. Choice is huge and sometimes hard.

I am proud to say that Tasha's immediate response was "I am not a quitter!!" We knew that about her. It is one of the reasons she made the softball team...her will is strong! Her words that made me smile? "Call dad and change his mind, he's your husband you can make him change his mind!!" :) I explained I would never try to do that when I agreed with him.

Tasha chose, although she did not feel it was choosing. To her it was awful! To us, to looked like that choice was made with a whole lot of commitment, integrity and just doing the right thing! I think(know)she would tell you that doing the right thing is not easy, or fun and sometimes just makes you mad! She would be absolutely right. Sweet/neat/awful/wonderful/hard lesson to learn at 14.

It's in parenting that we have such a huge responsibility to see that our children learn these lessons. It's a standard they have to learn to place on themselves! We help/force/make them choose and we are the sounding board/judge and jury so often in their young lives. I do know that easy or not, doing the right thing is just the right thing!!!