when I grow up

Blog-tember Day 3: "When I grow up I want to be...." Feel free to answer as your 5-year-old self or as of now.

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When I was younger, I was full of ambition and dreams, and I haven't changed much. There was a period during childhood I well remember where it seemed like every new day brought with it a new dream or desire. I have always loved to sing, and as a child I was #obsessed with Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Celine Dion. I could see myself singing to thousands, belting it out in the most beautiful sequined number that was tailor made for me. Some evenings, my family was subjected to my "concerts" in the den, which consisted of me singing along to a (low volume) track on a CD, the television remote my microphone.

Then there was the Katie Couric phase. Oh, how I adored The Today Show. My parents always watched it in the mornings as we got ready for school (they still do), and I just knew that it was the most wonderful job in the world to tell the news and get paid for doing it. I'm a talker. Getting paid for talking seemed like a pretty sweet deal to me.

In the second or third grade, we had a special take-home project that I have not since forgotten Our assignment was to make a timeline of our lives, highlighting a few important events. But the catch was that we also had to project into the future. For my future professional aspirations, I stated that I wanted to be a mom, a teacher, and an actress at night. Hey, one out of three is kind of like halfway there, right?

It's funny how the Lord uses your dreams as a child to wake you up and inspire you to remember your truest self when you've just about lost that person in your adulthood. I know right now that I am where I am supposed to be. I love my job and am blessed with the life I have. So I thank Him. Because while I would have loved to sing for thousands and make millions as the next Whitney, He saw fit to give me classrooms full of children year after year so that He could rock their worlds. And I'm quite alright with that.

Now, when I think about what I want to be when I grow up, it isn't as much refined to titles such as wife and mother, although those roles are ones I pray and hope to fulfill one day. But when I think about what I want to be when I grow up now, I think about who I want to be. And that person is one who is full of grace and ridden of fear. A woman who loves those around her well and seeks to give more than she receives. She is someone who immediately makes others feel warm and comfortable, no matter their station. And she loves Jesus. Oh, does she love Jesus.

What about you, friends? What do you want to be when you grow up?