Here's To Joyful Parenting!

I'm defining my concept of joyful parenting.  I've had lots of conversations over the last 10 years about what it is or is not, but sometimes it's hard to really see it in action.  For instance, how do you stay joyful and kind while chastising a child severely enough that they'll remember it the next time? Praise God that I'm learning, and I've acquired some good examples.

So for today, I am going to use a post a friend passed along.  Disclaimer: I haven't read this woman's blog, so on some of these points, I'm not entirely sure where she's coming from.  As a busy person, I'm just taking it at face value and enjoying it.  I hope you do, too!

10
Point Manifesto for Joyful Parenting:

1. Today, I will make our home a house of prayer. I will pray at set times. And I will invite our children to come move into an interior space that lives with God.

2. Today, I will transfigure all things into beauty, and I will refuse to see anything else.

3. Today, I will not have any emergencies. There are no emergencies! Only amateurs hurry.

4. Today, when stress mounts, I pray to dismount it with gratitude.My stress management plan will be intervention with verbal thanks. I can only feel one feeling at a time, and I choose to give thanks at all times. Fight feeling with feeling!

5. Today, I will pray to speak words that are only STRONG words, words that make these children feel strong. Grace words. Grace is the only non-toxic air. All other words I breathe are death words.

6. Today, I will pray to be consistently consistent. I will create safe rhythms that our children can find security in. I will create daily ceremonies because everyday we are CELEBRATING the gift of now!

7. Today, the moment when I am most repelled by a child’s behavior, that is my sign to draw the very closest to that child.

8. Today, I will hug each of my children as many times as I serve them meals — because children’s hearts feed on touch. I’ll look for as many opportunities totouch my children today as possible — the taller they are, the more so.

9. Today, my priorities will be all Things Unseen.

10. Today, I will laugh! And I will let the little children laugh! I will create a culture of JOY!