raising children

 As summer starts with a bang (my back went out the first day the kids
were home from school -- and then I came down with strep throat on day two),
I am reminded of my task in life which is one of the most important and for which
I feel the least equipped. I seem to have read or heard sometime in the
not-too-distant past that our children do not learn what we teach them
so much as they become passionate about our passions. So this difficult task
is to take what I know to be my deepest passions and wear them on
my sleeve. My children already see my passion for creating and people-pleasing,
for shopping and eating. And they are following in my footsteps in their
own ways in all these endeavors. But what drives my best moments and
motivates all good in my life is a devotion to Jesus Christ which is so intimate
and personal to me that I keep it very well hidden, perhaps especially
from the people closest to me. I desperately want this passion to bubble
to the surface and become contagious to my kids.