Do you know who the 3 most important people are in the life of a mother or father? I’ll give you a hint, you’re not on the list. #1 is definitely not yourself.
God should always be number one, and when you’re not spending time with him, you should be encouraging others to do so by showing them how important he is to you. Next up is your spouse. Many people tend to start making their kids a higher priority than their spouse once those kids show up, but this may be one of those factors that leads to divorce, though not necessarily. Just make sure you spend plenty of time building up your relationship with your spouse because you promised God that you would when you said “I do” at the alter.
#3 is your children. I got my tiny message about God and your spouse being the top 2 out of the way, so let’s shift our focus completely to number 3. As I said in the intro, you’re not in the top 3. If you have a spouse and other great family and friends that put God and others first, then you should be pretty well covered. 🙂 Anyway, my real point is that your kids are more important than you, or more specifically, you need to make sure you’re showing them love and making sure their needs are taken care of before you start doing things you want to do.
This is something that I’m sure everyone (at least the people with kids) needs to work on, and it’s tough to find a good balance of loving everyone that you should in the appropriate proportions. But I’m personally just trying to learn to give up some of my “me time” or hobby time and give some of that to my family.
For instance, there were several things that I would have loved to do more than spend my labor day out in the hot sun, dragging four children around a crowded renaissance faire. I’m a cellar dweller, and I have been ever since I got my first gaming console (Nintendo 64) and computer (400Mhz CPU, 2.1GB HDD, 128MB of RAM… this thing was a beast… not). So, as you can imagine, I like to stay home and “play” (figuratively and literally) on the computer and avoid a hot sun at all costs. But, my wife wanted to go to the Ren. Faire and bring the kids along. Of course I highly considered saying no and telling her she could take the kids on her own, but I would have felt like a terrible person if I made her push, pull, and drag four young children around, so reluctantly I agreed to go.
And you know what? We all had a good time! Could’ve been better, but it was still fun. The boys had a lot of fun in the Kids Kingdom area of the faire, playing on the ships and slides and poking fake dragons in the eye. I’m glad I decided to go, for my wife’s sake, but moreso for my children’s sake. This is another experience they may never forget, unlike each time I plop them in front of the TV to get them off my back so I can do something I want to do.
Take a look at the smiling faces!
