9am life lessons – not by me

This morning started early with breakfast and making packed lunches. Chicken wraps, lots of fruit and alsorts of energy sustaining food for the athletics course the kids were to start today.

After breakfast, we had some time so they did their Quran then we read 2 chapters of Wizard of Oz. What would you choose out of the 2, heart or brain if you could have one? Existential question which was faced during the chapter we read… Heart brings happiness claimed the Tin man (brain is what tells you what makes you happy right, I’m thinking?) Anyway, not going to bluff, it’s a lovely book!

Following this we did a quick session on tawbah. I went over the three conditions of tawbah – that you must acknowledge your wrong, have some feeling of regret and sincerely promise not to do the action again. Then we went through some ayat where Allah SWT talks about the people of tawbah – how He loves them, how they are successful, and how it is what reforms you. I wanted them to understand that making mistakes is part of being human and in fact Allah loves that very fact that you err as a human but still come back to him. SubhanAllah. Reminder to do more tawbah.

We then had a few minutes left, before we had to leave. I decided to inject some inspiration to the three people sitting around me looking like they were somewhere between sleep and wakefulness, so I grabbed the laptop and searched Usain Bolt. Thought I would show them the fastest (documented) man in the world – maybe you could beat him today?

We watched a few of his races, within which, everytime he characteristically soars forward before everyone else. Then whilst we were watching the final one, the camera paused upon the faces of the other runners just before the go. As we watched them, I literally thought aloud and said, ‘You wonder why they bother when they know that Bolt is just going to win.’

It was at this moment when Y turned around to me, quite literally, looking me in the face and said – ‘You should have confidence, mama.’

Oh my. How true. Giving up before you even started, predicting failure before you even walked onto its’ platform.

Indeed, have confidence. Confidence so high that it shapes what it is you then go on to do. Confidence that you are able, confidence that Allah will make you able. That’s what I should have said. But I didn’t. I just stared.

May Allah swt bless all our children with unbounded confidence, coupled with resolute tawakul throughout every moment of their lives. And my little Y.

#Lifelessonsat9am