A Thursday with Intentionality
There is something amiss when I come to my Intentional Thursday blog and it is almost Friday already. Oh well. We've had two weeks of Thursday holidays, but this week we are getting back on track.
This week I want to focus on intentional parenting... a big topic, to be sure. But I'll keep it fairly simple. This summer I have committed to working on my parenting - figuring out the why and how of caring for, disciplining and loving my three children. Now, this is no small task, nor is it something I think I can either accomplish this summer, or in any sense work though in this blog.
One aspect of this simply being aware. Paying attention to what I am doing, and taking a moment to ask myself why. What is my intention in what I say or do in relationship to my children? One thing I wrote in my journal while at family camp last week is this: "I want to take the space between disobedience and consequence to respond in love - think about why they need discipline, what the goal is, how best to achieve it..." It is so easy to REACT to my kids and to their behavior. To worry about how others are viewing their behavior and my response, instead of focusing on the GOAL - which in my mind is to develop children who are whole and healthy, both physically, mentally, and most definitely, spiritually.
Another aspect is to be reading some books and gleaning those few things that actually apply to my family. The first I'm almost embarrassed about, it is so "1990's" and not really my style - The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families. It's a book we picked up when we were actively selling books on Amazon, and instead of selling it we decided to keep it. Five years later, I picked it off the shelf to read it and throw it away. Now, I'm not finding anything earth-shattering in here, but it is an incredible reminder to take the time to be INTENTIONAL - to choose to be effective. To be proactive, to know where and why the family is going, etc. Even the process of just thinking about a family mission statement has really challenged me to actively CHOOSE what our family is about, and how to do it. It's really wonderful.
I'm also reading a book called The Mom Factor. It is meant to help one process through our hurt relationships with our own mothers. But it has been invaluable in slowly recognizing the things that I do as a mother that could produce hurt in my children... and because of that, I can slowly make some changes to actively mother my children in a healthy way.
Anyway, that is the short version of what I'm being intentional about this week and summer. If I were to unpack it, it would probably be a blog of its own, but this is good for now!
This week I want to focus on intentional parenting... a big topic, to be sure. But I'll keep it fairly simple. This summer I have committed to working on my parenting - figuring out the why and how of caring for, disciplining and loving my three children. Now, this is no small task, nor is it something I think I can either accomplish this summer, or in any sense work though in this blog.
One aspect of this simply being aware. Paying attention to what I am doing, and taking a moment to ask myself why. What is my intention in what I say or do in relationship to my children? One thing I wrote in my journal while at family camp last week is this: "I want to take the space between disobedience and consequence to respond in love - think about why they need discipline, what the goal is, how best to achieve it..." It is so easy to REACT to my kids and to their behavior. To worry about how others are viewing their behavior and my response, instead of focusing on the GOAL - which in my mind is to develop children who are whole and healthy, both physically, mentally, and most definitely, spiritually.
Another aspect is to be reading some books and gleaning those few things that actually apply to my family. The first I'm almost embarrassed about, it is so "1990's" and not really my style - The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families. It's a book we picked up when we were actively selling books on Amazon, and instead of selling it we decided to keep it. Five years later, I picked it off the shelf to read it and throw it away. Now, I'm not finding anything earth-shattering in here, but it is an incredible reminder to take the time to be INTENTIONAL - to choose to be effective. To be proactive, to know where and why the family is going, etc. Even the process of just thinking about a family mission statement has really challenged me to actively CHOOSE what our family is about, and how to do it. It's really wonderful.
I'm also reading a book called The Mom Factor. It is meant to help one process through our hurt relationships with our own mothers. But it has been invaluable in slowly recognizing the things that I do as a mother that could produce hurt in my children... and because of that, I can slowly make some changes to actively mother my children in a healthy way.
Anyway, that is the short version of what I'm being intentional about this week and summer. If I were to unpack it, it would probably be a blog of its own, but this is good for now!
posted by Jennifer | 9:44 p.m.
1 Comments:
Hey Jennifer! Thanks for sharing your thoughts of mothering. You really encouraged me to think about my mothering too. Especially after a really "ugly" mothering day. (So glad today is behind us.) I also want to be intentional with my parenting and had been pondering my reactions to Jay and thinking about what was under the layers.
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