Balance Training

Whew! The hub-bub of the holidays swirls around us! Just coming down from a mad dash of activity between Thanksgiving and Christmas...What are you feeling right now? Are you feeling anxious, a little edgy, a little unsure of what do with yourself now; after everything is all done?

I’m sensing that in myself and in my family and my mother instinct is on alert. Our kids don’t always know what they need. There are people and parties and endless places to go. We have to help them navigate and learn to be balanced. We have to teach them what a healthy amount of activity and stimulation is and what is unhealthy. They won’t know on their own in this over stimulated, pleasure seeking culture that we live in.

Today, I had to do this for myself and for my kids. They have friends that want them to go to the mall, sleepover, see movies. I was sensing that we all need a day to “recallibrate”, to let our adrenaline drop back down and stop racing after thrills and excitement. We need a quiet day to fill up again although the kids would never say that. No different than a toddler never admitting that they are tired and need to go to bed.

So I called the kids together as ideas for plans and people were filling the room and told them we needed to look at the next couple of days and decide which days would be the best to have “out” days and which days best for “in(s)” and we made some good decisions together.

I’m not attempting to live their lives for them and make their decisions but I need to give them some gentle guidance and valuable life training at times. So many parents don’t do this! We have been trained to stay out of our kids lives. We can be scared to interfere! But the truth is, God has given them parents (you!) to lead them in wisdom like that.

It takes courage because that is not how the people around us live. We can be criticized for it and look like nerds and fear that we are missing out on the “fun”. It’s harder to do than it seems. But it is so valuable! We are helping them to learn healthy, godly patterns for their lives. Our older kids, now with this training and adult perspectives really appreciate this gift that we gave them. We didn’t give into the status quo and let them run 24/7. Because they didn’t, they have treasure to give from the treasure that they became, during those “recallibration” days.

In this season of gifts, remember, that one of the greatest gives we give our children is this.