One Step Ahead

If it's Tuesday I must be thinking about what's involved with raising children.

And so I am. Today I was considering all my wee, tween, and teens in my care both special needs and typical.

Listening to the words I speak to their parents I recognized that one of the hallmarks of those conversations is the admonishment to keep an eye on where the next stage of development for your child or teen will be.

It isn't that we are wishing away our off springs' days. It is that we are building in today what they will need tomorrow. They can't see next and so rely on us to help them make good choices about what to keep and what to discard in their behaviors and attitudes ...without squelching or killing their spirits and their personalities, hopes and dreams whether tested or tried or left wanting. Now THAT's a balancing act.

How do we encourage them to grow strong and secure in themselves prepared for what lies ahead without locking them into fear of the unknown? We do it by example and that wonderful paradox of the now and the not yet. It is where the righteousness of good solid development as human beings that will contribute newness and goodness to the future world is rooted.

It is also the hardest part of child rearing. Never more so do we have to unhook the buttons where we have been prewired  or set down the baggage from our past to which we cling.

You can do it! You can keep abreast of all this, and still keep them company. Care for yourself but do not absent yourself from them emotionally because this balance is too weighty or tenuous or precarious along side the living of our own lives.

Keep trying. Hold it all in tension. You will notice your children are aware of your gift and appreciate the company and thrill of leaning into the unknown while you hold their hearts for them in sacred trust of all that they will become.
Love,
Deborah