I started this blog a few years ago, but it was forgotten until now. I am not much of a me, me, me kind of person. I pretty much like staying in the background hidden. Something inspired me to do something special with this blog. I guess I am on a mission. I changed the name and deleted the old. I want to start new. I am feeling a bit like a tiny fish in a big ocean right now, so it seemed fitting. This post is about a family project that we just started (a never-ending one) and I want to keep track of our journey.
My blog isn't about a perfect Godly family. I won't even pretend that we are. My blog is about a regular family that loves God, a family that wants to do better in glorifying him. We are sinners, but are striving to not be perfect, but to learn from our mistakes and do better.
Here is the revelation that I have experienced recently. I thought that if I could make my children over-achievers, I could make up for any shortfalls that I might have. I nit-pick everything that I do and it helped me cope with any mistakes that I have made along the way. We kept busy, so that they could learn to do as many things as possible, and I would feel good about that. The thing is, what we really need is time together. There is no better thing to teach your kids, than how to love and to simply be a family. Dance classes, piano, flute lessons, sewing classes, art lessons, none of these things teach your kids character. We have cut our schedule down greatly now, and have kept only what fills our hearts with the most joy. I told my girls that if they don't feel that God has aspired them to do it, we are getting rid of it. They took it as a challenge to soul search and freely let go of the extras. Wow! What a relief!!! I won't tell you that I have it all figured out yet, but I am really making the changes and feeling positive about it.
I am not saying that we are some awful, immoral family, :) but....I really think we have some traits that we need to work on. We do love one another greatly and we do TRY to live like Jesus would (Oh what a challenge that is!), but we are a prideful, rebellious bunch. There! I admitted it, we are self centered, prideful and rebellious (not all the time of course, but at our worst times)! Hmmm...come to think of it, isn't pretty much everyone these things at least some of the time? I am thinking that if everyone were to look deep enough, they could see these qualities in them as well. I do think that there are certain traits that some struggle with more than others. For us I chose these traits to begin concentrating on.
I ordered these wonderful charts from this Doorpost curriculum that a wonderful blogging friend was talking about. http://moonwithaview.blogspot.com/ (It's a great blog, I had to mention the link). Anyways, it has been a true blessing! Those charts were exactly what I needed, at the exact moment that I needed them. I was transitioning in many ways and needed the perfect stepping stone, to move forward further. We need character training in our home. I have great kids, but just like all of the rest of us, they have their faults. As I looked over the charts, I realized that these would be perfect, not just for the kids, but us (parents) as well! They have certain behaviors listed and by each one is scripture to combat the behaviors. I LOVE IT! You can hang them up and when you find yourself acting un-Godly, you can see what God has to say about it. My favorite charts is the Brother Offended Chart (you refer to this step by step what to do checklist when you are having a dispute with someone) and the Go-to-the-Ant Chart (this one lists many character traits and the scriptures that correlate to them). The girls had an argument tonight and we used the Borther Offended chart and worked it out as a family. It was beautiful!! They were even amazed at how it worked! We went through each step and by the end, they were cheerful and loving towards one another! They didn't hold any grudges or resentment towards one another. I am telling you, it was beautiful. They both agreed that the chart really helped them see that neither of them were perfect and that they need to ask forgiveness, forgive and move on to being friends again. I couldn't believe how simple, yet powerful it was! Jim and I used it when we had a disagreement earlier, yep with the kids witnessing every bit of us going through the chart. I strongly believe that our kids should witness us working on our own imperfections as well. How can we expect our children to take the plank from their eyes, if we as parents aren't willing to do so. Tonight was excellent!
As a family, we have decided to be on the lookout for selfishness, rebelliousness, and pride-fullness. We will lovingly point these traits out if we believe we are seeing them in one another and use our charts and scripture to replace our hearts with kindness, love and humbleness. This will bring us closer and in my opinion, is much healthier for our family than being out running from place to place all the time. It is a tough challenge to change these character traits, but we are all ready to make the first step. I am eager to see how it goes. We are going to have family reward nights, so that we can celebrate all of our progress along the way. My goal is to study other traits and add them in too. I have also given each of us a challenge. How many times a day can we do something kind for someone? I would like to add one big act of kindness each week and keep the many small ones each day as well. I really want us to set personal goals and then we can celebrate in a humble (of course) way when we do well.
Blessings to all of you! :)
