Stand with Me - Part 2

Buying Vivienne's Lemonade at Central Market

If you missed yesterday's post you can quickly catch up by reading it here. For those who are up to speed let's get rolling.

Vivienne Harr. 9 years old. Determined and diligent. Lemonade stand for 365 days. Her mission: Freedom for children in slavery around the world.

Today, I want to focus on her parents which leads me to Lesson #2 on what challenged me about this story.

Lesson #2 - Parents, we have the important job of advocating for our children.

Not only was I blown away by Vivienne's determination but I was completely mesmerized by her parents. They didn't crush Vivienne's spirit with the No's they helped her attain the possible.

Your child comes up to you with a heavy request _(fill in the blank)_.

What do you do? Do you....

A.) That's great sweetie and one day maybe you will.

Provide semi-hope.

B.) Impossible. Not going to happen.

Provide no hope.

C.) If this is something your passionate about let's see what we can do together.

Provide hope.

Parents obviously you need to exercise wisdom based on your child's request but all I'm suggesting is that we hear them out. We provide explanation, understanding, advise, etc.

When Vivienne first shared what was on her heart and how she wanted to contribute her parents surely had doubts but they allowed her to dream. It became a family discussion. They walked with her through the process. They gave her understanding, painted the picture, traveled with her, worked side by side with her. 

FYI...Vivienne has met her goal of $150,000. She isn't satisfied and she is not stopping!

I'm sure Vivienne's diligence has been an inspiration for her parents as well as the rest of the world. As parents we must stand in the gap for our children. You can read another great example of that in an older post here.

I'd also like to give a shout out to Stillmotion. This crew out of Portland, Oregon are the sweetest, hard working, and good hearted people. My husband at MitchIdol.com has religiously followed this crew and we are so grateful that they love to tell stories like this one.

Sophia (my daughter) in Austin,TX a week before the premier helping us promote the movie.