Spent my whole growing up scrapping for what I wanted and needed, and I learned to figure out what I wanted was far different from what I needed as result.
I learned what it meant to be rejected by being rejected and so I learned the value of simply accepting someone.
I learned what it meant to go without if you wasted anything, by going without.
I learned how make things last and not to waste, because I knew when it was gone it was gone and that was it.
I learned the value of a dollar by having to work and save for what I needed and wanted. That no amount of asking was going to change answer because no amount of wishing can put money in the bank.
I also learned the value of smart spending by finding that buying cheap crap just means you're going to get cheap crap and you will spend that same amount but it twice as you would if you had just bought the right thing.
That it is better to wait for what you want, and to go without what I didn't need, and to live within my means.
I learned the value of work ethic because I knew what was on the line if didn't work.
I learned the love of a parent by experiencing a large lack of it, and trying to always remember what that felt like so that my own kids would not have to receive the same from me if I could help it.
All of these struggles and more have made me what I am today, and yet for some reason I work as hard as I can so that my children will not have experience the same.
I would not wish for my kids to experience much of my life, but sometimes, and it is strange I know, but I wonder if in some way I may be doing them a disservice that they have avoided so much of my life as well.
I hope not.
Amen!
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