I am happy. I really am happy with my life and the way things are, and I look forward to the future and all that it may bring. But there are those days... the ones when I compare myself to other moms. I find that on those days, I get kinda depressed. I look at the trendy ones, the crafty ones, the ones that teach their two year old to read and write, the ones that take pictures of everything, the good cooks, the ones who always have a clean house, the ones that seem to have it all figured out. Well, it can be pretty easy to put myself at the bottom of the list and get down on who I am. Well, I am determined to put a stop to this the best I can. One of my goals for 2012 is to just be the best mom I can be. And be happy with what that is.
So what kind of mom do I want to be? I want to be the one that lets my kids be kids. I want to love them and hug them and kiss their owies better. I want to teach them to be polite and to be responsible. I want to be forgiving and understanding. I want to teach them to love learning. I want to be an example of service, gratitude, obedience, diligence, and teach them to keep their bodies, minds and spirits active. I want to be the mom that keeps unity in our home. I want to make our home a haven so that when they are grown and leave the house at times, they can always come home and know that they are coming home to a good place. I know that all these things seem kind of daunting to think about all together. I can't be all those things in one day, but day by day and year by year, as they grow... that is what I want to be in the end. Of course in between times, I want to learn to cook and sew and do crafts with them. But if I don't teach my kids to read by the time they're in kindergarten, I won't be disappointed. If not one of my children is inspired to play a sport, I won't be let down. I can't have unrealistic expectations for myself, or my kids. (Not that those things are unrealistic, but expecting them to do all those things is.) I hope that I can focus on the important virtues that Heavenly Father wants His children to learn while on this earth, and I think other things will follow on their own.
1 comment:
I love it Sarah! I'm so sad that we weren't able to get together during the break. I'm sure you were super busy! Reading your first paragraph reminded me of how I feel sometimes. I always remember this talk by President Uchtdorf when I start feeling like that:
"God is also fully aware that the people you think are perfect are not.
And yet we spend so much time and energy comparing ourselves to others—usually comparing our weaknesses to their strengths. This drives us to create expectations for ourselves that are impossible to meet. As a result, we never celebrate our good efforts because they seem to be less than what someone else does.
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses.
It’s wonderful that you have strengths.
And it is part of your mortal experience that you do have weaknesses."
I love that you are looking at what your strengths are and not your weaknesses! I think you are an amazing mom & look up to you a lot!!
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