Ordinary

So recently I was doing some heavy reading, the Parade insert from the Sunday Press, and came across this quote from Connie Schultz. "It takes courage to live ordinary lives." All my life I've pursued extraordinary as I'm sure you have too. I used to walk around my childhood home pretending that I was in a movie or at least the star of a really amazing show called my life. What I'm discovering is that ordinary is not only o.k., it's downright admirable. Marriage, parenting, faith, teaching, being in relationships with family and friends takes ordinary, hard work. 


When I was dating my husband in college he asked me why I picked him, an ordinary guy. I answered that by ourselves we were ordinary but together we were extraordinary. (Yep, you can cue the cheesy music now.) But I believe that. The way we love each other is special and different than any other couple.


Similarly, I think teaching elementary physical education is a rather ordinary job.  But how I teach and care about kids, showing them Christ's love is kingdom building work, right? I often feel inadequate after reading my college's alumni magazine. It highlights the really amazing things it's graduates are doing around the world; working at the North Pole, risking their lives to be missionaries in a hostile African community, discovering how a missing or defective gene can't deliver vitamin A to your eyes (huh, what?) and the list goes on and on. I admire these people for taking their education and radical ideas into the world and I understand that their work makes for really interesting articles. But I must admit that once in awhile I would like to read an article about a stay-at-home-mom who teaches Sunday school every week.


But I guess that's my story. And I can choose how to write it every day in all it's ordinary glory.