Walk Your Child to School

Sometime last week we received a phone call from the school letting us know that the upcoming Tuesday was walk your child to school day. Never heard of that before. Do you think that I remembered this morning? No.

I don't know what it is like for you in the mornings but for me it is craziness, to say the least. I should also mention that I am a very task-oriented person. I have a list when I wake up and I need to get that list done in 24 hours.

On my way to drop of my 9 year old daughter this morning we passed by the area that parents were to park so that they could walk their kids to school for the walk your child to school day. I was thinking....Crap, I forgot about that. I glanced at the clock and it said 7:25. I looked at my daughter and said, "I'm sorry, I just don't have time plus we talk every day on the way to school."

I turned to pull down to drop off my daughter and to make myself and her feel better about the situation I said, "See, we are not the only ones not walking to school today." There was a car pulling out of the school. I proceed to drop off my daughter, tell her I love her and then pull off looking back noticing that the kids that had their parents "walk them" to school were in a line to receive a free backpack and a water bottle.

As I was leaving I looked down at the clock and it said 7:28. I should mention here that I am a teacher at a near by school and have 1st period planning and I have to be there by 7:45. I immediately called my husband and started telling him what a terrible parent I was......but wait....I told my husband, "I've gotta go", he said, "What's wrong." I said, "I gotta go."

I pulled down into the elementary school, called them and had them have my daughter come to the office. I walked into the front door and saw her and she looked at me and said, "What are you doing Mom?" I said with tears in my eyes, "I am making time for you. You are important to me and I DO have time to walk you to school." So, needless to say we went to the place where all the other parents were parking and I walked my child to school today. I saw parents, grandparents, aunt's, etc. walking children to school. This might not be a big deal but my daughter was really excited to get that backpack and water bottle. That might be the only thing that she got out of the experience but it taught me something very important. If I don't make time for what is important to me then the time won't be there.

I was about 2 minutes late for school but nobody missed me and I felt like the best Mom in the world!

I've always wanted to be a leader. When I realized that leading meant being others focused I realized that I was never going to be a leader. I've been praying lately that God would help me to be more others focused. To me this story is proof that God answers our prayers sometimes in the most subtlest manner!

Living Loved and Freely,

Elizabeth