Maturity, Responsibility and Ownership

I was awakened by a sound in our office around 5:00 AM Friday morning - about 90 minutes before the alarms were scheduled to go off.

When I went into check it out - this is what I found.

But first - a little back story:

The night before - right before bedtime- Meron had JUST STARTED a slide presentation that was due Friday. It wasn't her best work - but it was done.... OR SO WE THOUGHT.

After she was in bed - we found the rubric the teacher handed out for the project in Meron's folder. She was nowhere NEAR doing what the rubric called for.

Frustrated, I pulled the "angry dad" move and went to her bed to admonish her lack of responsibility and maturity and told her maybe a terrible grade on this would help her understand she needs to start earlier, work harder, etc...

Okay - snap back to 5:00 AM and I'm all like:

"Meron - what on earth are you doing?"

And she said:

"I set my alarm to get up early to try and fix this presentation I didn't do good on..."

And my heart was both beaming with pride for the maturity, ownership and responsibility she was showing and at the same time - crushed for how harsh I had been with her.

So - sleepy or not - I sat down at my desk that faces her (she was sitting across from me at Laura's computer) and I proceeded to lend a hand where I could for the next 60 minutes or so... from proofreading to finding facts and photos - I didn't say anything - I just took her direction and helped her out.


As we were wrapping up and putting the final touches on a MUCH BETTER presentation that adhered to the rubric - my inbox dinged and I got the above message from her.

I looked up at her - sitting 2 feet away from me - and she was beaming - smiling from ear to ear - and said:

"Thank you, Daddy!"

And all I could think was - "I do NOT deserve the gift of this child..."


I was super convicted in my parenting for sure - and this precious gift from Him allowed me an opportunity to redeem that - and I am grateful beyond words for it.

Meron - I see your hard work, your maturity, responsibility and ownership - and I couldn't be more proud of you, girl.

Daddy LOVES you!