More lessons from children's books

My family is part of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.  It's a program that sends a book to children every month at no cost.  It's a fabulous program and one that my kids and I have really enjoyed.  They get so excited when they get their books in the mail and always say, "Mom, Dolly sent me another book today!"  By they way Dolly, we LOVE YOU!!  My kids favorite song is Jolene and we sing it at the top of our lungs going down the road.

A book came last month called Stand Tall Molly Lou Mellon by Patty Lovell and it's illustrated by David Catrow.  Normally, I don't mention the illustrator, but this book's cover caught my eye immediately because of the beautiful, itty-bitty, little girl on it.  She reminded me of Cindy Who from the Grinch.  She has curly, frizzy black hair, a large forehead, big clear blue eyes, a tiny button nose and huge buck teeth.  She's also very petite.  There's something about her though that really stands out.  Her energy and confidence are there beaming back at you!

I couldn't wait to read that book and I was not disappointed.  I knew after the very first paragraph it was going to be great!

Molly Lou Melon stood just taller than her dog and was the shortest girl in first grade. 
She didn't mind.  Her grandma had told her, "Walk as proudly as you can and the whole world will look up to you."

Grandma was so full of great advice for this little one.  It resonated with me a lot.  Not only because as a child I looked a lot like that, but because these are all great things we need to instill in our children so they have good psychology about themselves no matter their physical appearance and despite the perception of others.  Here's some other awesome things Grandma said:

"Smile big and the world will smile right alongside with you.
Sing out loud and strong and the world will cry tears of joy. "
The best of all is, "Believe in yourself and the world will believe in you too."

The rest of the book shows her coming up against obstacles and how she overcame them using Grandma's words of wisdom.  Too many times we complain about people not believing in us, others holding us back and blaming other external factors for not reaching our potential.  It's not them we should be blaming.  We should be recognizing that somewhere along the way, WE stopped believing in ourselves.  The only reason the others don't see your potential is because if you don't believe, you definitely aren't going to be seen as a visionary, a doer, and you're never going to be seen as a leader.  Don't let this be your excuse to not go after your dreams and what you want.  I didn't start living until I let all those past "stories" go and realized it is was completely up to me and only me!  I hope my children learn and know this sooner than I did, so that they may live now and not wait until they're in their 30's to start what could be the best adventure ever.