Never Give Up
Every night I tell my kids "they're beautiful, intelligent and can do anything they want to do in life and nobody can stop them." They have no idea why that is buried deep inside my heart and why I'm burying that deep inside theirs. My mother taught me that with her words, but I learned more from her actions. I never quit no matter the odds and I'll tell you why. The first and only time I saw my mother come close to a breakdown was when I was 9. She was a single mother who had recently gone through a bitter divorce after many years of domestic violence at the hands of my father. She was working 3 jobs, had no car and had to decide between paying rent or buying food. To make ends meet she swallowed her pride and applied for food stamps. She was 28 with a 9, 6 and 2 year old.
Of course I didn't know any of her struggles, I just knew we had a home, heat, food to eat and love. As she was going through the mail this particular day, I remember her reading a letter and collapsing on the floor. Her approval for food stamps arrived. They awarded her $25 for a family of 4. She locked herself in the bathroom and lost it. She eventually pulled herself together and came out. She was different though. Her pain, sorrow, fear and worry that drove her to apply for food stamps now turned into determination, perseverance and power. She threw the food stamps in the trash and said "we're going to make it on our own".
Fast forward all these years later, I along with my brother and sister are her living testimonies that no matter how hard life gets, never ever give up because weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. What was meant to break her only made her stronger. If she can do it, so can you and I.