“It’s not about the size of the dog in the fight, it’s about the size of the fight in the dog.”

It’s been a busy week, so when we sat down to FHE (minus Rob who’s in Edmonton (again) for work), I told the kids to skip the quote of the week because I didn’t have one.

Zach jumped in and said he had one. It was a quote that he heard at school (I think it was on a handout or a test, or something). He shared this quote and we all agreed it was a keeper.

It’s really the perfect quote for all of us: we all face challenges, trials, disappointments, upsets, letdowns, discouragement, conflicts and temptations. Doesn’t matter who we are or where we are on this path of life. We will be in the ring, at some point, and usually, at many points.

What matters most is that we do get in the ring and we fight with everything that we have. That we keep going, endure to the end (we talked about this common saying during FHE too) and never give up. We give it our all and don’t stop!

This week one of our kids had a major disappointment. It’s so hard as a parent not to want to step in and take all disappointments away:( But we can’t (and I mean there are some things we have no control over, as well as we can’t deprive them of life lessons… but this was one that I had no control over so it always seems worse). I do know that all disappointments help build resilience and strength, but it’s much harder to watch your kid go through it….

As I talked about the challenge with this child, he quickly referred to a talk we had started to watch the week before during FHE (and we will continue the talk when Rob is back). It’s the “Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch. It’s an amazing lecture by a professor who found out he had terminal cancer back in 2007. You can find it here. (He wrote a book too). In it, he refers to challenges as being “brick walls” and says:

This child, despite the disappointment he was feeling, said about his challenge, “It’s like the brick wall, except it’s not even that bad because I can even see over the wall already.”

I was so proud of him. So proud of his attitude (it was better than mine!) and so proud of the “fight” this kid has in him. It’s really the fight that counts.