Following my two-year-old around the spongy turf under the slides and ladders of the park playground, I glance over my shoulder to make sure those 6-year-olds haven’t wandered out of sight. I see the 9 and nearly 12-year-old attempting some gymnastic like maneuvers on some equipment near by. The older girl, today her last day of her 13th year, wanders a bit behind me.

The sun is warm on our skin, but not burning us yet.

These last weeks of summer are winding down in a way that seems like we are walking through a thick sludgy mud. We still have two and a half weeks before school starts, we have spent the last 10 weeks nearly constantly together. I feel drained, exhausted, emotionally spent. There is a heavy demand to be available to this many little bodies 24 hours a day. Lately, I have questioned how I could even be considered equipped for such work.

As I stand here in the park, instinctually counting heads, I consider how many hours of playground supervision I have logged in my lifetime. After 10 years in before and after school care and summer camps, plus 9 years of parenting, I think its safe to say that number is well into the thousands. Thousands of hours watching little bodies find their way through tunnels and across bridges. Seeing little ankles running back and forth in front of me. “Watching Me! And Me! And Me!” do all the things they couldn’t do the day before. How many times have I said, “I see you, I’m watching, Good Job!”? How many times have I yelled “Be careful, Get down, Look out!”? I can’t count, but I can say I am more than qualified to supervise this brood on this playground. And as I consider that, I consider all the other things I am qualified to do.

It doesn’t take experience or a degree to be a parent, be a caretaker, be a person who loves and guides a child. It takes effort, it takes persistence, and it takes love. But if I were to apply for this job, my resume would be just what the job description called for. Years of childcare experience, with all ages. Years of planning and teaching kids through experiences. Years learning how to manage behavior followed by years training others how to manage behaviors. Years getting to know the differences in children. Differences like age appropriateness. Differences like special needs. Differences like life experiences, personal histories, culture and religious backgrounds. I have spent much of my adult life learning about and loving on children.

Its not that I need to have a resume to be qualified for the life I am called to be living today. I think we all have the potential to rise to the occasions our lives present because we are equipped, even if we don’t know it. But I find that on the days when I am feeling like I can’t make anything right, do anything right, be anything right…it is a place to start, to remember how God has been equipping me for this job my whole life…and He’s not done yet!