It's Always Something

I spend a lot of time reflecting on  parenting.  Things I feel I'm doing well and areas I need to make adjustments. I seek counsel from wise friends who have already walked the path I'm on. I watch families who have finished this season of life and imitate the things they do well. And most of all...I pray. I pray scripture often over my children and our lives. I pray for the most seemingly insignificant things as well as things they are years from experiencing. I so want to do this thing well!  I pray God will use my shortcomings and mistakes to their benefit that they will not be caught up in bondage of the things I don't do His way. I'm not a perfect parent and my children are not perfect children. I have many things I want for them! But mostly, I desire to grow them in love and that they will daily walk with Jesus.

It's often said that people do what we do not what we say. Our actions speak louder than words. Sometimes that can be a scary thought and yet it's reassuring when you see them imitating us in Godly ways.

I came across a great illustration of this by a lady I think was so funny! My dad used to quote her one line often. "It's always something. If it's not this, it's that." Gilda Radner. These few paragraphs from her book It's Always Something reflect great parenting lessons. Enjoy.

When I was little, my nurse Dibby's cousin had a dog, just a mutt, and the dog was pregnant. I don't know how long dogs are pregnant, but she was due to have her puppies in about a week. She was out in the yard one day and got in the way of the lawn mower and her two hind legs got cut off. They rushed her to the vet and he said, "I can sew her up, or you can put her to sleep if you want, but the puppies are okay. She'll be able to deliver the puppies."
Dibby's cousin said, "Keep her alive."
So the vet sewed up her backside, and over the next week the dog learned to walk. She didn't spend anytime worrying, she just learned to walk by taking two steps in the front and flipping up her backside and then taking two steps and flipping up her backside again. She gave birth to six little puppies, all in perfect health. She nursed them and then weaned them. And when they learned to walk, they all walked like her.

Yesterday I was washing dishes at the window and watching our dogs outside. They'd just been fed and they were all 3 wandering around the backyard. I watched as Bo, the lone male dog, sniffed around for the perfect spot to 'relieve himself' and I laughed to myself. No male dog ever taught him how to hike his leg. He goes just like a girl dog because that's all he ever saw. Another illustration that dogs, like people, are great imitators. 

My prayer is that God will equip me to be a better parent today than I was yesterday and a better parent tomorrow than today...I know I won't be perfect but I trust Him to cover my mistakes and bring good from them.