Tag Archives: obligations

What I Quit Doing.

The past few months my stress level has been pretty low.  My load is no lighter.  As a matter of fact, it’s probably fuller.  My secret to controlling the stresses that I actually can control?

I quit dreading.

I quit dreading the commitment I made I wished I had not made. 

I quit dreading the thing I have to do whether I want to do it or not. 

I quit dreading the fact that pretty soon my alarm is going to go off, and I’m going to have to motivate two little people to get out the door to school.

I quit dreading obligations that take away time I wish I could spend….resting….replenishing.

Dreading makes everything worse.  My grandfather used to always say, “It’s worse to dread something you have to do when just doing it is bad enough.”  In other words, nothing is going to change that commitment.  That thing.  Those obligations.  And, dreading them makes the doing them that much harder. 

So, I quit.

I no longer worry or stress about when I’ll have my next down time.  My next reprieve.  Instead, I make up my mind to maybe say no to the next request.  Unless that request is a life-giving need.  Because, it’s in those life-giving times that I remember my life is not my own.  And, God is always faithful to make me lie down in green pastures and restore my soul.  And, this rain sure does make them even greener.  A little drop of a degree or 100 might help, too.  But, I digress.

Stop dreading.  Remember whose you are.  And, how faithful He is to give you exactly what you need when you need it. 

Deal?

Deal.

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Filed under life, Randomness

Commitments.

After not getting his badge at a Camporee (that I didn’t sign us up to attend because of previous obligations), John Henry said, “I quit Cub Scouts.”

A lengthy conversation followed about commitment.  I explained to him the importance of fulfilling commitments.  He had committed his first grade year to Cub Scouts.  He needed to finish it.

I can remember when I was in the fifth grade I wanted to play an instrument in band.  That instrument?  The saxophone.  Yes, little ‘ol me on the sax.  My parents paid a pretty penny for that instrument.  In return, I had to commit to play through ninth grade.  It was a breeze to maintain my commitment until ninth grade.

When it suddenly lost every bit of the cool factor.

But Barbara Goss wasn’t going to cave and bail me out.  My momma wasn’t about to let me back out of my promise. 

(Although, it probably would have made her life much easier as a parent.)

So, with great gnashing of teeth, I finished playing that durn thing through ninth grade. 

And, while I was upset with my mother for making me finish at the time, I’m grateful for the value in her lesson. 

Finish what you start.

As for John Henry, he did earn that badge.  And, he couldn’t be prouder.

Are you instilling this virtue in your children?

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Filed under parenting, Virtue