"What If It All Goes Right?" Hopefully one of the videos you see to your right is Melissa Lawson, winner of Nashville Star 2008 singing this song! She is a mother of 5 little boys all under the age of 10 and she won Nasville Star allowing her the honor of singing at Bejing 2008. What a miracle. My eyes were definitely tear-filled as I watched her win and saw her husband and little boys run on stage to hug & congratulate her.
This song made me start thinking, what are our dreams for our children? for ourselves? The play on words is thought provoking: "What if it all goes wrong..." That is a familiar cliche that reminds us all of cartoon characters with a cloud hanging over their heads. And from an early age we learn that if we are negative about something, if it does happen we get an "atta boy" and if does not happen, we get, "well, you predicted that". And if we allow that kind of thinking to permeate our world, we allow failure to be the norm. It allows our relationships to depend upon our failures.
BUT, the song turns it around and asks, "What if it all works out, what if it all goes right..." What if? The possibilities are endless, aren't they? What are those dreams I mentioned earlier? Did the parents of the Olympic athletes push their children or did something inside the children push their parents? What made them realize that quality was worth their strivings? In the end, I believe that most us want our children to "love what they do and do what they love". In a recent movie I watched, "The Great Debaters", the Pastor kept telling his son, "Do what you need to do, so you can do what you want to do." Little eyes are watching, little ears are listening, little feet are following us. It is an overwhelming task we have given ourselves, but if we embrace each day and enjoy every minute of it, most of the lessons just happen naturally.
"What if you chase your dreams and it changes your whole life?" For each of the Olympic athletes and for people like Melissa, it does not "just happen". It took lots of commitment and lots of sweat and tears.
I am not suggesting that all of our babies become super athletes or superstars but I am suggesting that we never limit them or tell them not to dream big. Never stop dreaming or believing. Everyday is a day to celebrate life.
