Welcome to my log of the 30 Day Mommy Challenge created by Sigrid over at The Joyful Mother.
We tell our children daily that we love them. But Day 7 asked that it be done so intentionally. I took them time to do it Sigrid's way. They all replied in some way - Ethan said, "ok, mom", Gavin and Mikey both told me they loved me too, and Seany just giggled. It was good.
Day 8 required that I focus on my intuition. I really spent alot of time thinking about listening to my God-given feelings. Why would we be blessed with such convicting feelings if we weren't meant to use them? I also thought about how freely we dole out opinions to other moms, when sometimes the situation might call for directing our friends to focus on their 'gut-feelings'. Interestingly, I had the opportunity to watch a documentary called Sound & Fury that very day. The movie showcased two related families whose children had been born deaf and the decisions each family was making regarding cochlear implants. It was so poignant and full of controversy, and I realized that each family was clearly doing what their intuition was telling them. I thought of the times I have listened intently to my intuition and times when I may have let an opinion on a book, a family member, friend, the internet or the "Should-monster" make a decision for me. No more! Let's encourage each other to pray, meditate, and spend some time listening to ourselve instead of everyone else.
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| This is my Wii family (sans Sean - he was too little to have an official Mii) There is no good reason to add this pic except for the fact that I get such a kick out of it and hope you will too! |
On Day 9, Gavin was reading the list of challenges I have posted on my frigde. "How are you doing on your mom challenge?" he asked. I told him I was on Day 10 and asked him what he thought. "Wow, you really are doing good!" That was about as good as it gets. It is not that one day of not using critical, harsh or negative words with your children is going to make a huge dent (but it might), but the idea of even being conscious of it is! There were a couple of times I was going to say something to one of them and realized that it was really not important correction, therefore, it would have just been negative feedback.
Day 10s challenge took me most of the day to figure out what bad habit I could give up. I know it's a big one, but I am going to work on giving up on beating myself up. Negative Nelly needs to shut up! I pick apart alot of mistakes I make and generally use the same language with myself that I do not want my children hearing growing up in my house. I am going to quit being quit so mean to me!
You can still jump on board. If you haven't read the challenges, read them. Pick a couple to tackle, do them all. You can't go wrong even picking one.
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