Little Girl Dreams

Think back to when you were a little girl. Do you remember your favorite outfit? When I was in fourth grade, my mom bought my one and only pair of Levis. I wore those blue corduroy Levis with a blue turtle neck and thought I looked great. (The pictures say otherwise!)

Do you remember your favorite teacher? I was (and am) a geek, and I LOVED school. I had a string of favorite teachers, but my all-time favorite was my second and third grade teacher, Mrs. Warren. She had espadrilles in all colors of the rainbow which made her beautiful in my eyes, and she gave us Fun Fridays. We got to do crafts as centers and write and perform our own plays. I loved her.

Do you remember summer days with your siblings? My brother and I loved to climb trees. We had a magnolia tree with trees to the top like a ladder. One summer we built a fort up there and spent hours in the shade of our southern "mansion". (We also had a wicked towel-whipping fight that landed me in big trouble.)

Do you remember what you wanted to be when you grew up? Early on, I went through the normal list of vet, nurse, singer and actress (I still want to be a singer! I'm waiting to be discovered.). But once I settled on teaching children, that was it for me. That dream followed me and propelled me into adulthood.

I kept nursery at church. I spent weekends babysitting. I was a nanny during the summers. Eventually I got an education degree and stepped into a classroom. It was the fulfillment of my dreams, and I was filled with passion for teaching.

On my journey of faith, God is calling me to a new dream. Giving up the old, little girl dream is hard. It was my calling and passion for a long time, so it's a little sad to move on to something new. Once again, however, I'm finding myself filled with an excitement and passion that I've been missing for a while. On Wednesday I'll tell you about my next step.