This is a picture of my daily routine kept on the front of my Home Management Notebook. You may not be able to read it, but I recently added a daily reminder for myself:
"Do my boys feel cherished today?"
(Preacher Man included!)
cher·ish [cher-ish]
1. to hold or treat as dear
2. to care for tenderly; nurture (from Dictionary.com)
If I get too focused on what I need to accomplish in the day, I am prone to running roughshod over the feelings and needs of everyone else in my family, which really gets in the way of what I am trying to achieve overall - a peaceful and harmonious home environment.
This daily reminder helps me remember to stop what I am working on throughout the day to:
- kiss my husband
- sing and rock in the rocking chair with the Littles
- read extra books with them
- give extra hugs
- invite a child to help me prepare a meal or wash dishes (they LOVE this!)
- REALLY listen to what Big Littles is saying (the kid talks incessantly!)
- sit down and color with them
- laugh with them
- look into their eyes and smile
- say the words, "I love you"
It doesn't matter that I love them with all of my being if they never feel it.
Do you have any special ways that you show your loved ones that they are cherished?
1 Thessalonians 2:7 - But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children.
Very good. Sometimes cherishing gets lost in the way of "practicality" and even "good stewardship" You think? That is to say, there's a faster, cheaper, more efficient way to get to the end result, and I tend to forget to look through a child's eyes at the joy and the wonder and the memories that can be in the journey... even if we make a little more mess, or "waste" a few more cents...
ReplyDeleteReally good reminders for me, as my most natural ways of showing love aren't the ways several of mine most feel loved...
This is very comforting to me. I have a lot of work to do as far as the practical aspects of being a mom someday: cleaning, cooking, and budgeting. But these aspects of cherishing my husband and children...these I feel like I can handle and that I truly look forward to if it's in God's plan for me. :)
ReplyDelete