If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know that Easter time this year was a time of great reflection for our family. One of the things that I reflected on and then decided to put my mind to was to become a more holy wife and mother. One of the ways that I decided to do that is what I want to share as my Works for Me Wednesday tip for this week (which has a theme this week — parenting tips. Since what follows has sometimes changed my parenting and is important for a parent to think about, I wanted to go ahead and share it this week)…
I have started making a real effort to stop looking at chores as…well…chores. Instead, I think of them as ways to bless my home, my children, and my husband. Now, I will say up front — this doesn’t mean that I *enjoy* doing the tasks that have to be done. Oh, quite on the contrary, sometimes I down right dread doing some things I need to do. But, rather than grumbling (or feeling like I want to grumble), when I am working on a task, such as preparing dinner, I look at my family and think, “Look at what a wonderful gift I can give to my family by preparing them a warm meal that will nourish them.” Or…at the very least, at times I can think, “Isn’t it a blessing that I willingly give my time to give them food so that they stop complaining.”
Seriously though…I don’t want to sound like I walk around praising myself for doing household responsibilites. But, as I was chatting with a mother from school, we talked about how different your attitude can be just based on the way you look at what you are doing. If you get dinner ready and think, “Why do *I* have to do this? I don’t want to do this!”, then you will probably feel tired after doing it and you will feel like junk. But, if you think, “Well…maybe I don’t want to be making dinner tonight, but it’s a blessing to my children that they have a Mom who is able to have the time to make them a meal,” then you leave the kitchen feeling a sense of accomplishment and a sense of purpose for what you have done. You have just made dinner, you have nourished your children.
So, while I still put off things, and I still would rather sit on the computer — I have found that my outlook has changed when I am actually doing things. And, I have oddly found myself sometimes rushing around right before Eric gets home to make things look extra nice before he gets home from work, and…darn it…I think it is making me a better Mom too! Crazy!
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