Responsibility

Eli and I started reading "Bringing up Boys" by Dr. Dobson together the past couple weeks. Kudos to Eli for pushing for the joint read! Not that I didn't want to read it ... I fully endorse reading parenting books and improving my parenting (you don't know what you don't know, right?). But, I feel like my reading time is so slight already! It takes my concentrated and best effort to get time in the Scriptures each day. Any other reading time is catching up on friends' blogs here and there, and maybe flipping through a parenting magazine on an elliptical once a week or so. Read for enjoyment? I would love to! I was a voracious reader up until my boys were born. And then reading got pushed aside. Which I have learned to accept.


I just felt overwelmed with the idea of having to read this book at the same time together, get it done, finish my Social Work CEU's - which are due by the end of this month - and everything else. But, it's gonna be a priority for me. We've made a goal to read a parenting book together every year. Eli keeps reminding me that although at times things seem okay, we "don't know what we don't know". In other words, we have so much to learn that can improve our parenting, help us to better understand our kids and where their little brains are at, and let God show us how to best raise them up to be caring, loving, strong, respectful boys. Hah! Sounds completely impossible. It is. But with Someone's guidance and us following His directions, we can at least do our best and give the rest to Him.


The book is great so far. But what has been going through my mind this weekend is the incredible responsibility of raising a child. They mimick you. They copy what we do. They repeat my words back to me. They watch all my actions, all my failures, all my outbursts of anger are put on a show. I am to model love for them, teach them to accept others, to be generous givers. I do not want to take what God has given me lightly. As we are enjoying more "freedom" of schedule this summer, I see even more how special the task of being a parent is. Nothing can ever compare with giving birth and seeing the miracle of a baby ... but there is a lot that follows that moment in time, isn't there? I hope not to strive like crazy to be the "best parent I can be", but to see how each day God gives me opportunities to sow seeds in my children's hearts that will grow and grow and point them in the right direction.