Ever feel that your day is overwhelming or you’ll never get caught up on all the tasks? Children need sound shoes, clean clothes, balanced meals, nutritious snacks, sufficient rest, time for learning and studies, play time and gracious parents. David Viscott once said, “Be gracious in forgiving common oversights. Be gracious for favors that others do for you. Don’t point our how you failed to reach your goals. Be gracious in acknowledging your debt. Be gracious in accepting thanks and appreciation. You don’t have to measure the world by a perfect standard. When you’re gracious, other people become gracious.”
Give yourself a break. Sufficient is the work for tomorrow, so why worry? I think, as parents, we get caught up in the many tasks that are on our plates. Yet if we break it down, some days focusing on today is enough. Years ago, a common saying was, “Give yourself some grace.”
And why talk about being gracious? These are the attributes we all want to instill in our children. A few descriptors for gracious are:
● Courteous
● Polite
● Civil
● Well mannered
● Compassionate
● Kind
Pacing ourselves is the key to not becoming overwhelmed. At this time, while we are all home-schooling our children, time management is about coordinating events. While you are doing your exercises, have the children play, or teenagers can do their studies. Nutritious snacks like baby carrots that can be dipped into light salad dressings are a good way to keep children busy while balanced meals are cooked. Take a break, listen to music, do some reading or take a nap yourself when the children take their naps. Mirrored events between parents and children not only makes time more manageable but models the structure that our children need. A father’s instruction and a mother’s rules “…become an ornament of grace” for their children (paraphrasing Proverbs 1:8, 9).
So, be an ornament of grace for your children and give yourself some grace when life becomes overwhelming. Although we talk about best practices in business a lot these days, we don’t have to measure the world by a perfect standard. All of us are human.
