"Special"

Special.  A word that every parent would use to describe his or her child.  

When I think about Baby Prez, he is special to me by all definitions of the word.  

1: He is distinguished by the unusual quality that he is my only son.  

2: I hold him in particular esteem because I love him beyond words.

3: He is readily distinguishable from all other babies because he is mine and came from my womb.

4: Of course he is not the usual because he is unusually strong and came into the world in a rather unusual fashion.

5: And I believe that God designed him for a particular purpose, though I do not know what it is yet.

The love that a mother has for her child automatically makes that child special beyond measure.  Yet, how does a mother balance the feeling that her child is already special with encouraging her child to a standout achiever?  With the self-esteem movement and the removal of competition at the school-level, how should we, as parents, teach our children about achievement as well as failure?

Obviously with only a 6 week old, I do not yet have to face these challenges, but as I look around the world we live in, the questions seem thrown at me time and time again.  I cannot know for certain how I will teach my own children, but I believe that considering these questions is important.

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