Perspective
Often times it is so easy to get caught in the stream of concerns and cares…. and these are most often about nothing important. Our perspective on life is so limited to the direct moment, confrontation, desire, frustration that is immediately in front of us.
How quickly we forget success past, perfect moments, carefree days and get stuck in the swamp of stuff that is right now.
There is a gorgeous verse in the Bible that says, ‘Who of you by worrying can add a centimetre to your height or even one extra day to your life?’ Age-old wisdom, relevant.
Today I am grateful for this little man who sits on my back and plays with my hair, who is absorbed in every moment, present and connected. I am grateful for the age-old wisdom I see played out perfectly in young-life.
Other grateful people at Meghan the marvellous photographer’s blog.
What has captured your thoughts this week?
BMWB #14 Capable vs Convenient
We have suddenly made a huge leap forward. One little man tried to ride with his training wheels off on Sunday and he was off.
This afternoon the sun was shining and so I said if he wanted to he could bike all the way (1.5km) to school and I would ride Flip’s scooter. And.He.Did.It – major moment of parental pride. This little guy only had his training wheels off yesterday.
Which leads me to my ‘becoming the mama I want to be’ thought. From what I have read it is incredibly important for our boys to develop a sense of their own capability early in life. The kind of internal self talk that says ‘I am someone who can learn things, I can solve this problem, Yes I have made a mistake but I can think of ways to sort it out’.
The temptation so often in parenting is to choose the convenient, quicker, easier way to do things (like take the car, or put him on the back of the bike) and while there are times for this I want to choose as often as I can, to make my boys feel like competent, capable people. Boys who CAN.
In the afternoon Flip said (20minutes before tea) ‘Can we do some glitter work?’ and I said no (because I couldn’t be bothered with the mess) and then I thought about writing this post and becoming the kind of mama I want my boys to remember and I said, ‘Actually that sounds fun, let’s do that’.
And we had fun.
This year I am making more of a conscious effort to have quality moments with my boys. B.M.W.B (becoming the mama I want to be) is my way of recording and hopefully inspiring other mama’s too. Please inspire me with the little moments you are snatching with your little people OR with ideas I could do with mine. If you have blogged about it please leave a comment so we can all visit and encourage each other.
Simple. Intentional. Achievable: becoming the mama I want to be.
These are the boys I love so much. Friends and brothers, may they always be so
What lessons are you trying to learn this year?
Contentment….
“Poor and content is rich and rich enough” [William Shakespeare Othello]
Over the holidays I read a book called ‘Enough – breaking free from the world of more’ by John Naish.
Along with some of the other books I read it really got me thinking about stuff. The book doesn’t just talk about stuff it talks about information and happiness as well as other things.
The challenge of contentment is hardly new and it’s problems can be seen in many of the problems the world is facing – famine, war, slavery, environmental crisis, even image obsession….surely they all have their origins in our desire to have/be more than we have and to keep up with others. Our feeling that we ‘need‘ that elusive something to make us ‘feel’ better.
I’ve decided I want contentment to be one of my words for the year. For me it’s more than just not complaining about life or things that go wrong it’s about finding peace within my circumstances.
At times it might help me to stop and remind myself that other people are facing so much less and so much more crisis or trial than I am – but in essence that is still happiness based on comparison. And there it is COMPARISON the great robber. The seductive voice that makes us measure ourselves as better than others or we feel not up to the standard and our lives aren’t as good as someone else’s.
I want my contentment to come from a place of being at peace and being grateful. Stopping my eyes from wandering and wishing (not ‘wandering eyes’ in the traditional sense I must point out!!). I’m happy to look at lovely things but only as they inspire me to be more creative with my own resources. I’m happy to enjoy my friend’s happiness in their children and their relationships as long as they encourage me to be SO grateful for the beautiful people I have to call family.
It’s interesting to me that The 10 Commandments (God’s law presented in the Old Testament that form the basis of Judaism and Christianity’s morals and ethics), number 10 is ‘You shall not covet…’ Coveting is wanting someone else’s stuff – (the Bible chooses to mention houses, wives/husbands… nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.’) It seems interesting that watching over the fence and wishing you had something that isn’t yours is up there with murdering, lying, stealing…. Challenging?
I think God knows when we become discontent we lose joy. Without contentment in who we are and what we have we are hamstrung in everything else we might do and achieve. If the things we do, the way we eat, the way we look/dress, car we drive……. are motivated by trying to keep up and be something we are not then our unique ability to impact the world is lost.
Contentment… elusive? Perhaps. But I think the real competition in life is not to keep up and work out what is missing. I think the competition is to be at home in ourselves and embrace what we have. This is the invitation I am trying to accept – that I can be content. Not because I am enough but because He is enough and I can be content right here, where.I.am.
What is your word for the year??
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