I Want to Be Just Like You

Finding time to write has been a difficult task since I began my new job.  Things happen daily that I think about including, but at the end of the day, I'm so tired, I barely make it to my bed.  Tonight, my girls are gone for half of their summer visitation time with their dad, and I have a moment to sit down and think through some of the things I have experienced since April. 

Almost three years ago, I made a decision to get out my pencils and my books, and head back to school for those teachers' dirty looks.  I hadn't thought about studying or taking a test in many, many years - not since the day I received my diploma at Lipscomb University.  However, I had begun to feel like it was time to take a different direction in my career.  So, I enrolled in a bunch of science classes, completed all of the pre-requisites, and was accepted to Nursing School.  However, unforeseen circumstances kept me from pursuing a future as an RN.  I really couldn't understand it, but I had to trust that there is a reason for everything.

During the 2011-12 school year, my girls had a "What I Want to Be When I Grow Up" day.  My girls wanted to be everything from a zookeeper to a rock star, and of course, having a dad for an attorney, they considered that.  As ridiculous as it may sound to anyone who reads this, I got my feelings hurt when they, not even once, wanted to be like me.  I wore so many hats, it was difficult to describe in one word what I did for a living, much less figure out how to dress for it.  Maybe that's petty, I don't know, but for the sake of being transparent, I was genuinely sad.  I knew that if I had gone to Nursing School, my girls would have considered the option of wearing scrubs to school that day with a stethoscope around their necks.  I guess in all, I was having a pity party.

In June, I had the opportunity to take my girls to the beach while I went to work each day.  That is an advantage of having a job whose headquarters is in Florida. :)  They had been out of school for a couple of weeks and they had been listening to me make phone calls to churches all day long.  So, it was a good change to hop in the car and drive South for a few days.  On the way home, my girls were playing games on my phone, singing loudly, talking and giggling.  At one point, I looked up and saw them each with a straw placed as if it were a phone headset and they began making videos pretending they were calling churches...like their mom.  Then, I heard one of them say, "I want to do what you do when I grow up."  Yes, I cried like a baby, and still am as I type this.

There have been countless moments since I accepted this job with COSCO & Associates that I have realized, without a doubt, that I am doing exactly what I am supposed to do,  and there will be more to come, I'm sure, because God is just like that.  Of course, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what I do for a living, and whether I'm an RN or a JD, as long as I'm serving my Savior...working to become more like Him, so that when my girls say, "I want to be just like you," what they really mean is they want to be more like Jesus.