It's all about God, yo!

Given the shortcomings in my own upbringing, I always vowed that when the time came for me to have my own children, I would do everything in my power to give them every thing and every opportunity that I did not have. I was pretty obsessed about it when baby number 1 came along. She had all the best of everything, best clothes, best furniture, best toys, etc. I was a mother on a mission to provide for my child. My husband humored me, as he knew how poor my family was when I was a kid and what a struggle it was for me. He "got" how important it was for me and did not object. When I wanted to send her to Montessori for preschool because it is the "best", he did not object even though it's the most expensive place for preschool in town. We just wanted to give our daughter the best possible tools to achieve whatever her dreams might be. We've tried to expose her, even at a young age to all sorts of activities: dance, gymnastics, swimming, etc. We have the same ideas for baby number 2 who came along last fall... although financially we've had to scale back a bit, now that we have 2.
Another thing we have agreed on was that we wanted our children to grow up in a church. I believe in a good Christian foundation, I wanted my girls to grow up with a sense of morality and have more guidance than I had. My husband grew up in the Methodist faith, going just about every Sunday until he got old enough to decide he didn't want to go any more. My background is a bit different, my parents never took me to church, but I went to a Baptist Church with one grandmother and a Catholic Church with another. When I got a little older, I started going to a non-denominational Christian Church with my neighbors. I also started attending church camp- where I eventually accepted Jesus as my Savior. I never had anyone to hold me accountable so I attended church irregularly at best and there were many periods in my life where I didn't go at all. I always thought that being a Christian was believing in God and trying to live the best/moral life you could live.
As we have finally made the commitment to get our daughters in church so they could be exposed to a Christian upbringing, I have been working on my own Christianity as well.
I've come to realize that being a Christian isn't just about how good (well behaved) we can be as human beings, I mean, sure that's part of it... but I've come to think, that more importantly it's how we treat others... and I'm not even talking about how nice we are to people... but more about how we make sacrifices of ourselves for God and for others in the name of God. It's about serving our fellow man, and bringing our fellow man to God. It's about turning it ALL over to God, and discovering new ways to serve each and everyday.
I don't just want my daughters to be "good Christian people" who follow the rules and are highly moral. Yes these things are important, but more importantly in that, I want to give my girls even more opportunity, opportunity to give themselves over in servitude to their Lord and fellow man. I want them to find joy in sacrifice, forgiveness, love and grace.
Yes I want them to achieve whatever they can to the best of their ability, but it's now more important to me that they grow up realizing that it's not all about how "good" we are, but how much we are living out our lives for God and doing God's Will.
What a giant responsibility I find this to be for me, since i am just now figuring this out for myself.