Dear Cora,

A part of me avoids writing here because it feels like I should impart some great wisdom every time. That is not the point of this space, though I do want whatever I write here to be meaningful and encouraging to you someday. But to encourage you, I do not need to explain a life truth perfectly. That is something I struggle with, my love. To live perfectly. I can't and I was born unable to do this. However, it does not affect my efforts to reach perfection. Anyways, this isn't what I came here to write.

I do not want to feed you a string of answers to life. I do not want you to have (or to think you have, that is) life figured out before you've lived it all. And so when I write here I just want it to be my heart, to be a rambling, verbalized emotion - not the key to life. I am currently striving to do this - to be teachable. I want to let go of my pride and shoddy attempts at piecing together self-worth, and allow myself to learn. First of all, I want to learn from the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. I want to use these gifts as the ruler to measure all other parts of life. I also want to learn from my family and my friends. That is one of the gifts of relationship. Each of us live life in a certain order, along a unique path. Some people, perhaps even those younger than me, have walked through some things I have yet to experience. Others can even simply share wisdom and truth about the situation. If I try to believe that I have all the answers, I will not listen well and I will not live well, because I will live without significant relationships.

Several weeks ago, I began a list. The idea was prompted by your grandpa, my daddy. The list was of family values that I wanted to instil and maintain in my family, especially those that were a part of my upbringing. One of those things I listed was teachability. I still remember your grandpa reading through Proverbs with me and your Aunt Jessica. He explained to us that if you were "teachable" it didn't mean that you could teach others well - instead it meant that you could be taught well. In short, teachable = others can teach you. Proverbs says a lot about this quality. Here are a few verses:

"The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice." Proverbs 12:15
"Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety." Proverbs 11:14
"Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid." Proverbs 12:1

It is not easy to have a heart, mind, and spirit open to correction. I think it is natural for each of us to jump to the defense, to explain and argue until our point is made, until we "win." I do this all the time, and even if I don't say it, I think it. I try to prove myself, even just to myself. How silly is this? Do I really think I know it all?

I hope that I can practice teachability more and more with each day of my life. I hope that, by example, I can model teachability to you sweet Cora. I hope that you will teach me things and that I will do the same for you. And I hope that we may always listen to Jesus, who can teach each of us more than anything we could imagine.