I am determined to build a dining room table. Some steps feel easy and some I'm trying to still figure out the how am I going to. I've resourcefully gathered free pallet wood and I'm planning my dollars to purchase what I anticipate will be needed to complete it. I may have handed any willing child a drill, a hammer, or a pallet pulling tool. Two girls asked to sand it. Not everyone who participated could envision w confidence the outcome even with a pinterest picture. There weren't directions, just vision and a drive to get there. Some children jumped in whole heartedly immediately and some eased into the project as it started to take shape or it came time for a job they wanted. Each of us looked back at the progress we had made by the end of the day and felt proud to have taken part of something that is coming together so well.
I paused as we were wrapping up to take a phone call... one i needed. I needed validation AND counsel to know how to address something separate in life from the pallet table. I wanted someone who knows more than I to weigh in on a need I saw in one of my children. WHILE I was on the phone my oldrst son created his own table. He moved thru every part of the process he could, had vision to complete it and waited for my counsel and saw cutting abilities to complete it. He was brilliant and I was proud of him on all accounts. The creating. The drive. And the ability to talk out with me the next steps. He saw me build. He wanted to build too.
Isn't life like that? Isn't parenting specifically so? We have vision and passion. We have hurdles and moments we have to pause and reevaluate, rethink, press into for answers that will work when what we just tried didn't work right.
Your children will do as you do more than do as you say. And if you are living the opposite life than you portray to them how long will tha last? Will they have a firm foundation (apart from a foundation in Him in spite of you) or are they just people pleasers who will use this their whole life to feel loved until they give up or be broken to seek something more authentic?
We need to emulate forgiveness. Humility. Growing in grace. Not perfect parenting, credible parenting...that mimics real life and really living.
Many unwelcome detours may come, pauses you wish weren't, loss and interruptions you may feel like ignoring. Yet we can't fully live if we want to ignore real life. To fully live means to fully feel in order to fully heal and fully thrive. Yes it is on repeat for life is full of hard things. However the joy in between we can find in the freedom of forgiveness and the tenacity to hold on in strength that isn't ours makes it not only bearable but amazing!
Shemah.