Baggage, Do You Have Any?

Isn't this an awesome picture?  These are the feet of my daughter and her friends when they were going to their Spring Fling.  This is sort of like a prom without dancing.  Kind of sad that there was no dancing but understandable.  All of my children attended, mostly attended Christian schools.  Not necessarily completely, but for some time.  My two youngest went exclusively to Christian schools.  And I am thankful that they were able to do this. 

Now two days ago I started out speaking of baggage.  Just so we are clear...I do not feel that we as parents should beat ourselves to a bloody pulp because of the paths our children have chosen to take.  We can be the best parents we know how to be and give our children all that we think that they need and as they grow up and mature we might look at their chosen paths and think "Why God?"  Were did I go wrong?  I know personally that there have been times with my oldest and now my youngest that I have asked this question or perhaps at this point in my life I should say that I have started to ask this question and then I stop myself...First of all because they were only short lived and momentary points where I was going to ask this question, but then decided that it was my responsibilty any longer.

Okay, you say why did I stop myself?  Because I have finally figured out at the wonderful age of 55+  that their choices are not my choices, and that their choices are not even necessarily as a result of the way that they were reared!  They can't blame their choices on their baggage, their choices are simply that, they are their choices.

Now please don't think that my children are involved in all sorts of bad stuff...they are NOT.  They are simply put making some choices that I wouldn't.  And I can say that now because I am a little older than them and I have a few more years of experience than they do, and oh my goodness, I really hope I have a bit more wisdom, although this last point may not necessarily be true.  There is a lot of wisdom in my children in different areas than where I may have wisdom. 

So do you have baggage?  I do...do I blame my baggage for where I am to day?  And do I still carry my baggage with me?  Some of these questions, yes and some no.  First of all is all of our baggage bad?  I think that anything that we carry with us from our formative years whether good or bad is baggage, so it is not all good or all bad it is just baggage. 

When you go away on vacation you take a suitcase and you fill it with the items that you think you will need while you are away.  This is your baggage.

As you grow up you can look at a list of items and decide what you will carry along with you.

  1.  Singing to your children.   definitely pack this.

  2.  Hitting your children with a riding crop.   DO NOT PACK!

  3.  A sense of pride.  Pack just a small portion of this.

  4.  Being an alcoholic.  DO NOT PACK THIS!

Okay I think that this is enough.  And you can see were I am going.  We have to pick and choose what things we will take with us as we grow and mature.  And some of the really important things we don't even learn from our parents.  We learn constantly and what goes with us is our choice.  As I was growing up we didn't always go to church.  We were more of the Easter and  Christmas type of family. And that is so sad.  I do think that for the most part I did instill in my children a sense of love for God and for enjoying church, so at least this is in their suitcases.  And this is something that I learned after my parents, after I was out and on my own.  So you see our baggage isn't all bad and we don't get all of our baggage from our parents...we pick things up along the way as well.  Just don't hoard...please get rid of the bad things and don't carry them along with you.  They will not do you nor anyone else any good to continue to carry them with you, all they will do is weigh you down.  And we want to lift up...sing some praises, spend time in the word, and be thankful for who and what we are!  Go be a blessing to someone, anyone and get rid of the negative baggage, you needn't carry it with you any more.