How do you know?

This summer has been a journey in learning how to parent and learning how to be a better person in light of parenting. Actually, if I'm being honest, every day is an adventure in learning how to parent. But I'm realizing that, after the umpteenth time I've said no to a certain action that my toddler carries out (like throwing his cup of water on the floor - every. single. day.), I begin to doubt my effectiveness in training up my child in the way he should go. (Proverbs)

A very wise, experienced teacher once posed the question, "When you feel like nothing is getting through to your students or that you're not making an impact on their lives, ask yourselves this: How do you know you're not?"

As parents, no matter how mundane the task at hand, we will always make some sort of impact on our children through the way we live. This is both comforting and horrifying at the same time, mostly because I can be a good mom until about 4:00pm. Then I'm just so-so. But a friend of mine reminded me that "Satisfactory" is still passing. And then he went on to say all of the horrible things that I am NOT doing to my child. This made me feel better.

I am not:
Smoking next to my child. Or smoking at all, in fact.
Giving my child alcohol to quench his thirst.
Putting him in the car without a seatbelt.



I AM:
Feeding him regularly.
Putting him in a carseat.
Changing his diapers.
Brushing his teeth.
Making sure he gets enough rest.
Taking him on outings.
Loving him.

Everything else is pretty much a wash after 4:00 - all of the things that seem important kind of fly out the window. So he doesn't eat organic all the time... So he throws his water cup for the millionth time and I give up a little... So he climbs on everything and nearly gives me a heart attack, AGAIN, and I snap a little... So he spits out all of his veggies even when I try and sneak them into his meal... So things around our house break because he gets worked up and overly excited, which usually means throwing things...

One thing will always stay the same - the last item on my AM list. I love him to pieces and I know that love is transformational. It has to be; it's changed me. Even though it seems like what I'm doing isn't doing much at all, it is. It really is.


How do you know you're not?