Parenting Tip #1 - Knowing Better

Don't Let Your Children Whine Themselves Out of Joy!

"It's too hot."

"I'm hungry."

"I'm not wearing the right shoes."

"It's too far."

"It's too steep."

"It's too rocky."

"I don't want to."

Such were the grumpy, whiny words I heard from P2 and (mostly) P5 today as our family climbed a mountain to reach a waterfall today.  We'd just spent hours in the sun watching P4 and his baseball team duke it out in intensely close quarter-final and semi-final games in a Memorial Day tournament (after getting up at 5:00 a.m. and driving two hours to get there) and everyone was hot and tired and hungry.  But I knew that we needed this.  I knew that when we reached the top the reward would be worth the effort, both for each of us individually and also for our family as a whole.  It would have been easy to let the whining win, to just stay at the bottom of the mountain and take what enjoyment we could from the trickle of water down there and call it good.  But I knew better.

When we reached our destination, we found such joy!  There was satisfaction and empowerment from reaching the top.  There was physical relief from the cool water on such a hot day. There was a delight of the senses in what we could see and hear and feel.  There was a bonding of family members in sharing an adventure together.  It was wonderful!  And the kids were all of a sudden full of energy, climbing higher voluntarily and shouting and laughing in happiness.

It reminded me of how things sometimes go between people and our Heavenly Father.  He has a path for us to take and we come up with all sorts of excuses not to and, yes, we even whine sometimes.  But He knows better.  He knows what's at the end of that path and the joy that's awaiting us, even if the climb doesn't appeal to us.  If only we'd just trust Him more!

As a parent, I continue to try to understand that fine line between respecting my child's agency and knowingly pushing a whiner because I can see something he doesn't or can't that will benefit him.  It might be memorizing the multiplication table, or doing algebra, or finishing that last elusive BSA merit badge to achieve the rank of Eagle.  I have a stewardship as a parent; some things are common sense and some things come by revelation, but as a mother it's my responsibility (and my pleasure) to know my children as personally as I can so that I can help guide them on the path that will bring them happiness.  The parent-child relationship is an eternal pattern and principle.

JOY!