Parenting Transformation Journey – Page 12
(Click here for page 1)
So the next day was crazy busy:
- 6:50 took Nathan to work.
- 7:00 ran home to get his forgotten security card so he could open the store.
- 7:30 stopped for groceries because I was out of lunch supplies.
- 9:00 made a lunch and drove across town with Kayli to get her…
- 9:30 braces off.
- 10:30 took lunch to Nathan on the way home.
- 12:00 picked up a broken laptop for my 11 year old to dissect.
- 12:30 went to Kinkos to bookify my kids’ school work from last year.
- 1:00 went to the Post Office to mail a package to my son in Colorado, and an Mindset Mastery program to a customer.
- 1:30 took Kayli and Jared to get them registered for seminary.
- 2:30 brought Kayli and Jared home from seminary.
With all this behind me I was exhausted and feeling a little edgy. At least once I had to say, “I want to be calm right now, so instead of talking about this, I’m going to step away and cool off.”
Anyway, I knew that sometime before bed I needed to help my son with his 2-3 pages like I promised, but I was having a hard time mustering up the energy to face it. It was the end of the day before I felt like I could do it. It was his Duty to God program from church that helps him discover that relationship with God. He was at the end of the first 2 years of the program, and he only had a few more days to complete it before it was time to move into the second 2 years of the program.
I found him at the computer and asked how he was coming on his Eagle Project proposal. This is something that has turned into a huge negative for all of us because for two months he has wanted to get it done but he has huge mental blocks about it and I have grown to hate it as much as he does.
But we had recently eliminated some pieces of it, and added some others, and he was finally excited to knock it out. He told me how excited he was about the changes, and that now he can SEE what needs to happen and how to bring it about.
I’m telling you what, VISION is powerful. When he had confusion in his head, he had no motivation. He kept asking the same questions over and over, like: “What do I do now? What am I supposed to say?”
But with clarity of the end result, his gears were spinning automatically and he instinctively knew all the steps that needed to happen to see it though. When a question came to his mind, instead of moaning, “What do I do?” he went straight to the source where he could get the answer for himself.
Got the proposal DONE! (He wants me to look it over one last time, but it’s done!)
Backing up a bit… when I looked at his Duty to God book, I had to take a deep breath because it looked like he hadn’t done a single thing in it for the last two years, and I wondered how possible it would be to cram it all into 6 days. I should have known where he was at with it all along, but I just haven’t been on top of it.
So, you can imagine my relief when I asked him about one of the first assignments – to plan a regular routine of daily prayer and scripture study – and he said, “Oh yeah, I’ve been doing that for almost a year already.”
“You’ve been praying AND reading your scriptures every day?”
“Yeah.”
“Really?? That’s awesome!”
Turns out he’s been keeping track of his assignments in the online interactive version, and he’s much farther along than I realized. I said, “Great! Well, then let’s just finish it up in the online program, and call it good!”
“Actually, I’d rather have it in this book, so that I can work on it at church, too.”
So I suggested he just transfer everything in, and he thought that would be a great idea. (No resistance. He seemed to really appreciate my interest and attention, and he was eager and excited to get that done. I’m still somewhat shocked at how easy that was, because of how much farther along he was toward reaching his goals than I realized.)
It was a great day for him. Victory with the Eagle Project proposal, huge progress on his Duty to God assignment, both he and his sister LOVE their new seminary teacher (funny, engaging, inspiring – every day!).
Some other victories: we got the main floor cleaned up with all the kids helping (it was in a bad way), got two internet campaigns done (one by each of my two older kids who help me build them for pay), set up an appointment to get my iPhone fixed, helped my son select and purchase the iPod he’s been wanting and which he can finally pay for.
Nicholeen talks about crashing at the end of the day, exhausted from all of the intentional parenting, but at peace knowing that you’re fulfilling a very important mission.
It dawned on me that even though my objective is to “Make joyful adults, who know what their mission in life is, and can’t wait to fight for it, and have solid relationships with God and family,” I thought – wait, this describes ME as I am doing this! I am a joyful adult who knows what my mission is, and I can’t wait to fight for it, and I am building solid relationships with God and family!
If you disagree, then before leaving your comments, all I ask is that you please first watch this BBC episode so you can see where this is going. They say that in the middle of a life-saving surgery it can appear as though there has been a murder in the room. It might get a little messy in the middle, but I do believe and trust in the end result. Each of my posts – standing alone – will not provide the big picture… but the episode does. Enjoy!
- Rare Faith What we do to ourselves - April 19, 2024
- Rare Faith Waiting for the other shoe to drop - April 15, 2024
- Waiting for the other shoe to drop - April 12, 2024
