Do you have someone cheering for you in life? Someone who believes in you more than you believe in yourself?
Let me introduce you to my mother, Jean. She worked way too hard for me not to be great. I recently read this quote and was quite convicted as a I processed the power of this thought. “My mother worked too hard not for me to be great. ”
My mother is the oldest of 4 children, born to deaf parents, raised in an orphanage and married at 18 years old. She has a spirit to fight for the life she envisioned for she and her siblings. After getting married, she continued to work and fight for the life she and my daddy dreamed about. My parents had 3 daughters and I am the oldest. She decided to go back to college and get her accounting degree while working a part time job, driving our school van and supporting my daddy while he was on the road traveling. We would often compare report cards with mom and she would always have the highest GPA in the house. I would often watch mom in the kitchen create the most amazing meals out of nothing. Her creativity in providing a warm, loving and faith filled home was inspiring.
After completing her college degree, she joined a local accounting firm which opened the door for ownership in another company with her brother. The challenges and sacrifices were great. I watched my mother literally become a superhero as she faced the obstacles and crushed them all. All this time she was giving me the courage I needed to embrace my own challenges. Leadership is caught more than taught.
It has been almost 20 years since my mother has retired and started another business. This time, we are working together. I wanted flexibility to be a work from home mother and she wanted to start something new with flexibility. When I have met tough challenges and almost thrown in the towel, she has talked me off the ledge. She has mentored me in countless ways helping me to see my value. Do you have someone in your life that believes in you more than you believe in yourself? Does that person help you see situations in a different way? Perhaps that person may be so obvious you have overlooked him/her.
My mother and I are very different in how we process thoughts and situations. I am grateful for a mother who has worked so hard over the years so that I may be great. As I see it, I don’t have a choice “not to be great”. So if you are wondering why I am wearing a super hero cape sometimes, I borrowed it from my mother’s closet.
Until next Friday. . .
