Most Sincere Apologies

It was six years ago that Averett and I discussed the possibility of my writing a weekly column having to do with preschoolers from prenatal to age five.  He mentioned at that time that the most difficult part of it would be coming up with what to write about week after week.  I had no reason to doubt him.  After all, he’d been doing so for years.

There have been times, I will admit, that I have wished, hoped, and prayed that I would be able to come up with an idea or inspiration, as I sat in front of my computer, as to what I might write about for yet another column.

Interestingly, I have not found this to be the most difficult part of the task though there have been times I would have welcomed an idea (or three).  For me, it is trying to recall if I’ve already written a column about something I’m beginning, or if I’m using the same illustration I’ve used before (perhaps many times before?).

With this concern in mind, I began perusing previous columns.  Considering there are 52 weeks in a year, an article is due 51 of those weeks, that’s roughly 300 articles in my six years of writing “wee Notes” for the Southside Messenger.  Taking into account that this old brain has only about that many active cells remaining, I’m doing better than I may have expected to find.

I say that to say this:  I learned that not only have I repeated the same subjects, but sometimes I’ve used the same examples. Reading some of my previous entries made me blush. I sounded at times like I’m overly proud of myself as a parent. Perhaps even pompous! My most honest, sincere, and heartfelt apologies if I’ve come across like this to you, offended you, or made you think I was some supermom. Yikes! So sorry.

A most kind woman recently stated to me how fortunate my children were to have been raised by me.  I assured her that I made more than a few mistakes along the way.  I encouraged her to ask any of the three of my children to prove this fact.

It has been my intention to assure my readers “if I could do it, anyone could.”  I did the very best I was able with the information, experience, ideas, etc., that I had at the time.  That is what I hope you do with the information, suggestions, and experiences I share here.  Use it to do the best job of which you are capable. Every. Day.  When we know better, we do better. Trust me, if I could have a ‘do over’, I would do SO much better in SO many ways. That is all that is ever expected of us.  Even our Heavenly Father only expects our best efforts. He is always there to provide assistance all day, all night, all ways, in every situation!

Please forgive my feeble efforts that often fall short of the mark. But know that I lift you in prayer as you make your best efforts at parenting. God can make those earnest efforts work for good even when we realize we probably could have done it better.

©2015 Brenda Holland-Robinson