And the Award Goes to...

So, this is the time of year when facebook is plastered with pictures of children graduating, going to award ceremonies, accepting their Nobel peace prizes, etc. Ok, maybe the last one doesn't happen very often.

First of all, please don't get me wrong. If your children have graduated or won awards, I think that is GREAT! I'd probably be posting about it, too!

However, I've recently been to two end of the year events for my children where awards were handed out, and my children did not get one. That's ok. I don't believe there has to be an award for everyone. I know that our society has too much of an "everyone gets a trophy" mentality. I get it. And I agree.

I mean, truly, if they were to give out awards to everyone, I think that my son would have won the "Your Mother is So Glad that this Year is Over and Thankfully It Looks Like You're Going to Pass Everything" award. I love my son dearly, but some days I'm just glad to survive.

However, watching other children get awards while mine did not got me to thinking. You see, when I was growing up, I tended to get awards. The teachers liked me and I got good grades. What I remembered is wanting my parents to "fuss over" me. I wanted to be a big deal to them. But, nothing I did or achieved ever seemed to be a big deal. It used to really frustrate me.

Again, please don't get me wrong. I had great parents. I know that they loved me. I can see now that I wanted those awards to make them love me MORE. I can see now that my parents already loved me completely. The awards didn't matter to them. I may not have understood then, but I do now.

So, I think about my kids. Does it bother my son that he wasn't named Outstanding 7th Grade Band Member of the year? I don't know. I hope not.

So many times we depend on what the world thinks of us to determine what we think of us. My brothers and sisters, this should not be (I feel just like Paul).

Every child should have someone who loves them unconditionally no matter what. Every child should have someone who is in their corner. I know it isn't always the case, but ideally parenting should reflect God's love.

Of course, no matter what our parents are/were like, we all have someone in our corner. God. He loves us completely and fully- unconditionally. Nothing can separate us from that love (Romans 8:35-39).

Awards and achievements are great, but I shouldn't need them to feel valued.

I told my son that to me, he was the Most Outstanding 7th grader in the world.

And he seemed to be ok with that.