Courage, Mama, Courage.

We have an often repeated line in our home: "Courage, Mama, Courage!"  

Because sometime, you just need someone to encourage you in the fight, to lift up your arms, to tell you to keep going, to believe you can do it.

Now in our home, this line is used for Costco runs, for making dinner, for getting out the vacuum.  The seemingly little nuisances that plague the moment and overwhelm the mind.  But in truth, the line is also a trademark I want to give my kids.

They think they are enabling me with strength, which they are, but I am also gifting them with words and character influence for life.  In chanting "Courage, Mama, Courage" the usher me to keep trying, to lift up my chin, to do the hard things.  Their little voices chant this line and I take a deep breath and get out of the car or sit straighter to sign up for a new endeavor to will myself to meet a new friend, once again.  But in this, they see my fumbling and they breathe life and strength into my mundane or mountainous.  They learn the ways of living, and the inner conversation to motivate 

I want them to hear "Courage, Camilla, Courage!" when a school assignment feels big, when waving at a friend across a parking lot feels uncomfortable, when applying for college.  I want them to hear "Courage, Judah, Courage!" when walking into Preschool feels insurmountable, when trying out for soccer feels insecure, when asking a girl on a date feels massive.

I want them to know its okay to need courage.  It's okay to feel insecure or weak or overwhelmed.  But then have language and examples on how to live in that and walk through it.  

** Never Finished, wrote August 5, 2020.