I've been able to spend the past month at home getting ready for Peru/Internship. I learned something that I've always known, but it was just manifested over and over again each and every day that I was there. My mother is amazing. What a woman.
She has taught me the following:
A person, no matter who it is, is a billion times more important than any object. She has taught me the following:
Their feelings and well-being outweigh any price tag or valuable item.
Things are just things.
If the car gets wrecked, no big deal. It's just a car.
If someone is feeling lonely or upset, big deal.
Here's one that was hard for me to learn, but I think I'm just now starting to get the hang of it.
I'm sorry that your shirt/jacket/pants/ skirt/ dress (fill in blank with article of clothing) got lost/ripped/stained/ (Fill in blank with a TRAGEDY) but I'm so glad that you gave your sister the chance to wear it today and feel beautiful in it. Because your sister and your relationship with her is so much more important than any piece of clothing.
With eight kids in the house, valuable things were bound to get lost, crashed, broke, spilled on, ran over, eaten, used as bases, colored on... you name it. You know what I'm talking about.
As I've looked back on the instances that I can remember, Mom has never freaked out about any of it. She may have cringed a bit when Holly chopped off all of Hannah's lush curls, but she knew that it was just hair and that it would grow back. When the BOYS (the girls of the family have a clean record :) got in car accidents, they weren't yelled at, ridiculed or belittled. They were so much more important to my parents than the car or the money that would be spent trying to fix them. When we borrow mom's jewelry and only return one earring (if we return anything at all), it's no big deal, mom was glad that we were able to wear it. I'm pretty sure I could go on and on, but you get the point.
Things are just things. It's usually never something to get worked up over and it's absolutely never something that takes precedence over an individual.
