The Navigation of Prepositions

      Although I love the written language, I have so much to learn.  Parts of speech, definitions, root words, and paragraph formation are a few of the fascinations I have about the art of communication.

         This week my children reminded me of the precarious position of prepositions in our exchange of communication.

As a quick reminder a

Preposition is:

A part of speech 

that indicates the relationship, 

often spatial, of one word to another. 

For example, “She paused at the gate”; “This tomato is ripe for picking”; and “They talked the matter over head to head.” Some common prepositions

are at, by, for, from, in, into, on, to, and with.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

         As our man-child and his precious bride and baby bump (affectionately called, Tad – for Tadpole) said their final good-byes early last Thursday morning, my son murmured in my ear he feared he had disappointed people in his decision to move almost 900 miles away.  My heart broke that he would carry this burden.

         Our youngest would come in from her first week of school saying she was placed in the lower “class” of her fellow ballet class members.  With much sadness she told me she was disappointed with herself.

         The preposition?  In and With!

         Two of our children feeling they had disappointed others, themselves and our family. I wanted to swipe away these feelings from their backs and attack anyone who had made them feel disappointed.

         Moms, I feel disappointed with myself.  I sometimes feel I haven’t done enough, I don’t have it all together, I don’t get it, and sometimes I don’t care.  All are feelings of disappointment with myself for not measuring up.

         Our children are struggling with these same feelings.  Disappointment is an emotion we shouldn’t try to snuff out, ignore or deny.  We have to face the disappointment with them. And sometimes…it hurts…a lot.

         Rather than denounce the emotion we can deal with the preposition.  Is the disappointment WITH the circumstances or dreams and desires they had OR is the disappointment IN themselves?

         Helping our children navigate the prepositions will help them as similar life circumstances approach.  Being honest about the emotion surrounding the disappointment and then determining if they are “disappointed WITH their circumstances” or “IN” them will help them not to be discouraged and not to give up.

         Understanding parts of speech and layers of emotions will help us all as we mature.  Our gift as Mommies is to love them IN their disappointments and WITH their disappointments.

I’ve personalized Galatians 6:9 for my man-child and ballerina: 

“You’re right, “its tough!” but there is a dance before the King and a beautiful place to serve in your future,

you are so close, don’t give up now…”