THE UNTAMED HEART OF MY DAUGHTER
This picture displays beautifully why I should trust in the wild, sweet and unknown future of my 14 year-old daughter. Why I should place my confidence in such a beautiful “free spirit”
She who seems unable to be tamed. She who won’t pick up her things, stays up too late, sometimes back-talks, loves everything loud, would rather socialize than study, and appears overly preoccupied with pop culture and image.
Last week, Savannah took a couple of close friends to a church youth service activity at a facility that provides emergency shelter for families in transition. She’d complained about having to go, dragging her feet and friends with her out the door at her parent’s insistence. I probably wouldn’t have known what an impact it’d had on her unless her friends hadn’t burst through the door to tell me all about it when they returned. Savannah hung back as they exclaimed in rushed overtures:
Oh my gosh, it was soooooo sad! When we first got there we couldn’t believe it and we just went in the corner and we cried and cried and we couldn’t stop crying and there were all these beds and they were all right next to each other and there was this guy who was like reaaaally mean to his kids and there was this other guy who was totally on drugs and he was soooo scary and weird and these kids were soooo lonely and we played with them and they kept wanting us to hold them and we carried them everywhere and they loved our hair and one of them reaalllly loved Savannah and she didn’t want her to leave and.
I got the picture.
Savannah and her friends told me they want to talk to the principal of their junior high to see about creating a clothing drive for the children there.
Yes, her complaining and her music and her friends and her cell phone are loud. But so is her laughter, and so is her love. The compassion in my daughter’s heart, given the right set of circumstances, cannot help but find expression.
It’s well Unable to be tamed.
Right around the time Savannah went to the homeless shelter, I had a coaching session with a wise and astute woman who is having issues with her oldest daughter. We discussed how usually other people trigger anger in us when they mirror what we are impatient with ourselves for. As mothers, who is closer to us than our daughters? Who better to reflect back how patient we need to be with ourselves?
(Gulp) I, too, have problems with picking up my things, staying up too late, sometimes back-talking
This last week, it’s hit me that I need to look less on my daughter’s actions and more on the beauty of her heart. After all, that is what the Ultimate Parent does for each of us Untamed Ones
For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
