Parenting

Yesterday Alexis posted on her facebook status a parenting question, one that was really more rhetorical in nature than advice seeking, nonetheless people chimed in. The question centered around, how much do we keep telling Emma that pulling on either of our cat's tails is a "no no"?

Now, the deal is both of our cats are really very patient with Emma and as of yet she has not been scratched, but yesterday the cat who we have never heard hiss (aka, Janek the nice one) actually hissed at Emma after she once again yanked his tail. The other cat hisses all the time, and scratches adults commonly, yet hasn't scratched Emma yet.

So, wer'e at this point of knowing the inevitable, Emma's going to get scratched at some point, even though we're watching her constantly, it's really a fact of nature that if you harrass an animal for too long, even the most kindest of animals, will get annoyed at some point. Where is the point where you let a child learn the "natural" consequences? I think it's at the point where Emma is, where she knows what NO means. But she doesn't quite see the "why" behind it. Of course we'll prevent it as much as possible, we're not to put her and the cats together and wait for her to get scratched. We do know at some point though, it will happen.

So, we'll continue to say no, and we'll continue to tell the cats no as well when they hiss or bat at people. Since we know that the life God has called us to involves all kinds of environments out side of our control (mainly life) we'll do our absolute best to explain life to our children, and that includes natural consequences which we'll do best to explain ahead of the events and consule, love, and bring light to their world after bad things happen.

It's hard for me to not be in agreement with other parents, especially my friends, but I also realize that God has shown us a lot in life through things. One piece of it is the fact that we don't have full control over Emma or even our own lives. what other parents do is what they have the option to do, even if we are not on the same page.

A jack of all trades, master of none.

If there is one thing that seems to have nagged me most of my life it is this idea that I am a jack of many things. Most of the time I see this as a gift, the ability to look at situations and address them somehow, even when I have very little expierence or knowledge of the issue at hand. Overall this gift has been an amazing thing to get me through life.

On the other hand I struggle with the fact that I'm really not a master of anything, that I'm pretty mediocre in many of the things I do. The only area where I feel like I'm an expert is in the IT field, which I'm glad that's where I work :). I know that this sounds critical, and that most of these feelings are distractions from the enemy to knock me off course. In the end though there areas that I would like to grow in, places in my life where I need a master, someone whose been there and focused their goals.

I'm willing to guess that their are others like me, not satisfied with the mediocre, desiring more of God, more of Him so they may grow in confidence and excellence. All at the same time, I must remember to hold onto His grace, realize that in a full schedule such as mine, it's the heart which God looks at, He addresses and He takes pride in. It's all about balance.