Parenting, Taking a Hard Look

Parenting...
It is not an easy job.  There isn't any putting a band-aide on it and dealing with it later.  It is an everyday job.  It is putting your heart out there daily.  Praying each day that your doing what is right for your kids.  Even though sometimes, your just feeling your way through the situation.  As my kids get older, I have had to take a step back and look at them.

Not as a parent.  But try to put myself in an outsiders perspective looking at my kids.  How does my kid interact with other kids?  How does he/she interact with other adults?  Would I want to be around them?  Yes, it is hard to look at your kids open and honestly.  But, it is necessary.  We are training our children to go out into this world.  Not, live in our basements and have friends just on Facebook.

Take for instance, little "Sally."  She seems like a model child.  Sally is very respectful with adults.  Very much a little "yes, ma'am" kinda girl.  Always the first one to raise her hand.  Ready to please her teacher in everything.  But, for some odd reason, the other children don't seem to like her.  Her parents think it is just because she's a teacher's pet.  What her parents don't see is how Sally interacts with the other kids when an adult isn't present.   They don't hear Sally's mouthy-ness towards every one.  They don't hear what Sally says about the other kids.  They have no idea their sweet little Sally is actually Eddie Haskell in disguise. 

After finally figuring out this Sally in my life, I looked at my own kids.  Removing my rose colored glasses and really trying to figure out their weaknesses because we all have them.  One of my kids really doesn't have any go-get-'em spirit about him.  He is content to be in the middle of the pack and doesn't strive to be first at anything. (drives his father crazy!!)   He does have a lot of friends, but he doesn't think before he speaks.  (drives me crazy!!)  What can I do to help him?  The griping at him doesn't seem to help.  How do to motivate some one that is content with the middle??  I can't make him want something that I want for him.  One of the joys of parenting is figuring things out, right?

Take a moment today to look at your kids from your neighbor's perspective.  Or maybe the other children around their age.  Maybe it is not always the other kids fault.  As parent's we need to take the good and the bad.  It doesn't mean we have to accept that is just the way they are.  It is our job to mold them into good, Godly men and women.  We can't do that if our rose colored glasses are hiding the truth right in front of our eyes.