Bring it on!

As a mother, I hear a certain phrase uttered over and over, "Yeah, but it's hard!" I signed my athletically-challenged daughter up for volleyball camp a couple of years ago. She begged me to let her quit claiming with certainty that she simply can't handle workouts that long. "But Mom! I can't!" she'd cry. I let her know that simply wasn't true because she certainly had the ability to go to camp even if she wasn't the star player. Her response? "Yeah, but it's hard!" I had my response ready. "It's okay if it's hard," I told her, "You can do hard things."

No doubt, it would be hard. And it was. She ended up completing each day at the camp and even had a good time, but it was hard. She was challenged many times. After it was over, she came into my room and thanked me for making her go. She said she was glad I made her go because if she hadn't gone she wouldn't have known she was a "warrior princess". 

As parenting moments go, that one was a winner. I was so proud of her and of myself, frankly, for sticking to my guns. We have a tendency to avoid hard things in life, and certainly try to protect our kids from hard things when we can. But the lesson from this experience led me to see that growth only happens when we are challenged and when we face hard things.

So, I encourage my kids....and myself for that matter...to welcome hard things when they come because growth follows hard things, and happiness comes from growth! So next time, you hear yourself say, "Yeah, but it's hard," answer back, "It's okay if it's hard because I can do hard things. BRING IT ON!"