Passion(s)?

Growing up in our family, exposure was the key.  Exposure to all sports/instruments/activities/clubs/travel.  Our parents, I believe, wanted us to have more experiences than they had an opportunity for and even more than that (b/c both were very well-rounded people) just the chance to see a bit of it all and be able to see what sparked for us.  This was an amazing childhood - full of "educational" vacations (Civil War battle sites, check; Early American colonies, check; skiing, check; beach, check; well, you get the point) - and as a parent myself, I desire the same for our kids.  I want them to see it all, experience all that this planet has to offer.  Here's the catch though.  I am not a driven person, in that I don't think that I have ever had that intangible something that makes people do great things - invent, create, win.  I would often start things/lessons with much gusto, only to peter out once I discovered how truly difficult it was to become a master/winner/leader.  I have lived here in middleville for the better part of my life, pondering what it means to be mediocre.  I can hear my dad yelling at the computer now, "But you graduated at such and such point in your class and you had a 4.0 in grad school!"  Yes, I'm not saying I'm unintelligent, rather that these accomplishments, I don't feel, took an extraordinary amount of effort/skill on my part.  My, I'm really using the heck out of that backslash today:)  Anyway, here's the point.  Becoming a follower of Christ means that the luxury of hanging out in the middle is gone.  If you truly love Him and desire Him to live in you and you in Him, then sorry sister, you gotta get out of that comfy spot on your couch.  You will be called to visit with that neighbor who drives you batty.  You will be called to serve your husband and children in ways that exhaust you physically and emotionally.  I told Jeff this morning that I had already died a thousand deaths my 9 this morning!  Becoming a parent forces you into a place where, if you want your children to know Christ and be able to make a choice for themselves to follow Him and to be able to articulate and argue their faith in the world, passion must exist.  Passion must rise up within you every morning, without fail, to meet these little people and be Christ to them - daily.  Yes, I will fail.  Yes, I will lose my  patience/temper/cool/calm/sanity.  But, I finally have a passion.  For Him. For them.