Role Model

My friend S stopped me after church Sunday to pay me one of the nicest compliments I've ever received.

"L really enjoys reading your blog," my friend said. "She's decided she wants to write a blog, too, so I'm getting her set up and she hopes people will comment like they do on yours."

I could not have been more touched.

L only recently began living with S's family. At 21, she's sweet-natured and loving but developmentally not ready to live on her own. S added L to the homeschool of her own younger children and now is watching her new "daughter" improve her reading and writing skills.

It struck me that as bloggers or as parents or as human beings, we never know what our real influence will be. We may set out with one goal in mind ("I think I'll write a totally self-indulgent blog that will let other empty nesters know we're not crazy!") and something entirely different is the result ("I really think this will help L with her writing.").

I know without a doubt that S and her family did not welcome a new, fully-grown member so that I would look at them and think how lucky L was to have found them, and what perfect role models they are on how to love and give sacrificially, and that I would be a better person if I followed their example.

But that's what happened.