{Weekend Words}

Happy June! This is one of those weeks I kept reading articles and blog posts that had me telling myself, “Yes! This! This is what I meant when I thought …”

Saying No To Your Kids and Fighting the Dragon :: “I want to raise my children to hear the necessary no as a yes to something else, something better. This should, I hope, be true in our homes. It is certainly – yes, certainly – true of the promises of God. At least in the big story. And that is what we are in for, the long story. This is who Christians are, characters in the story God is telling in the world.” Well said, Sam Smith. Sometimes saying no is exhausting, even when it’s necessary. Yes, sometimes I say no out of my own selfishness and laziness, but often it’s because I want something different for my kids than what our culture preaches and screams.

Worst End of School Year Mom Ever :: This nails a truth in a funny way. And, really, it made me not feel so bad for not caring about documenting how many minutes my rising-first-grade girl reads over the summer. Oh, and just go ahead and add Jen Hatmaker to your regular reading schedule. She’s funny and full of thought-provoking truth.

To the parents of small children: Let me be the one who says it out loud :: “You’re an actual parent with limits. You cannot do it all. We all need to admit that one of the casualties specific to our information saturated culture is that we have sky-scraper standards for parenting, where we feel like we’re failing horribly if we feed our children chicken nuggets and we let them watch TV in the morning. One of the reasons we are so exhausted is that we are oversaturated with information about the kind of parents we should be.” Yes. This. There is so much out there telling us how to raise our kids, what to eat, what not to eat, where to go, how to spend our time, when our kids should read … it’s not all going to happen, and we’ll be alright.

How to Fill Up a Child :: “I was concerned about how my children’s behavior or appearance was going to reflect on me. I pushed for perfection because I was overly concerned about what other people were going to think me, not them.” My perfectionist tendencies mean I sometimes have to stop myself from criticizing myself and everyone around me. And raising a girl that is a whole lot like me, means I need to be particularly careful not to instill perfectionism in her. I don’t want to make a big deal out of the three different shades of pink she’s wearing or that her Js are still sometimes backward. I’m thankful that God is showing me the beauty in imperfection. Hands Free Mama is good for me.

What have you learned this week? Any links to share?