A month of thanks…

When my daughter was young, she needed to wear a hinged brace on her foot and leg. This made it necessary to buy two different sized shoes. It wasn’t easy to find two pairs of shoes in the sizes needed in the same style and color that fit over the brace.

            Many times we traveled from store to store in search of matching, affordable options. I tried hard to make sure my daughter knew it was the situation that was trying and not her that caused any frustration. On one particular trying shopping trip, my daughter spoke up.

            “Mama, why do my shoes have to match?”

            Why, indeed.

            As long as the shoes were the same style, what would it matter if one shoe was pink and the other red? Who said shoes had to be the same color? Who cared what someone said anyway? We weren’t sheep people in other respects so why with shoes?

            With her colorful shoes, she received a few questioning looks from parents, but her friends thought her mismatched shoes were cool. They wanted to know why they couldn’t have two different color shoes. Not sorry Moms.

            My daughter is still one of my greatest teachers.

            I’m thankful that I was open minded enough to accept lessons even from a child, (maybe especially from a child).

            Take teaching where you find it. You’ll never go through life as a sheep.