As Garrett and I have planned and discussed how we want to raise our children, my thoughts have come back to this post I wrote last year (before we were married. Or even engaged... back when I put more thought and frequency into blogging. My contributions to this blog are appallingly lackluster!). As I've come to know and cherish Garrett ever increasingly, I feel he comes to represent all (and more!) that I was looking for in a companion and co-parent. Without further ado...
Over the past year or so I've contemplated writing a post on Fathers. Clearly I either felt inadequate, hesitant, or just not collected enough to do so (my thoughts are likely still not very collected and coordinated, but this post is coming anyway!)
While preparing for the lesson I am teaching this Sunday, I stumbled upon this gem:
*Happy sigh. This video made me smile and want to pump my arms in the air in a most victorious manner.
Things about this portrayal of fatherhood and parenthood that I love:
Children have a desire to learn. Their world is so fascinating and so many opportunities are available to teach them, to explore, and to make connections. Life is crazy and messy and glorious. It is important that fathers take part in this process, to be a friend and a guardian for their children. Almost anything can be a fun adventure if embarked upon with an appropriate sense of adventure and eagerness (including chores, homework, and eating vegetables!). One of the responsibilities of parents is to foster this sense of exploration and eagerness to learn and experience a variety of things.
I read a blog post awhile ago that also made me want to do a victory pump. It further discusses deliberate parenting: A Curious Mother and a Library Card (also note how awesome the Every Day Learners are!)
Amen! I think so many parents get into the mentality that they are just watching or "baby-sitting" their children; distantly providing the necessities. False! There are so many neat opportunities to learn and explore with your children, to involve them and be involved, to connect knowledge and activities, to help them regulate their emotions and actions and to learn from mishaps and mistakes, to let them see and understand their world, to bake things, make messes, clean them up, to learn of creation and miracles and their Heavenly Father (pardon that run-on sentence...). Anything and everything can be fun and worthwhile if it's made into an adventure. And yes, of course, it can sometimes be exhausting... 'Tis the nature of our mortal bodies and the process of learning and growth.
I also love how he talks of being a co-provider and partner with his wife; they are a team as they provide for the faceted needs of their family. This requires communication, patience, flexibility, love, and intention. Both parents fill very important roles (occasionally these roles merge or need to be filled by the other, thus requiring flexibility and communication!), and it takes planning and coordination to ensure that the needs of each member in the household are being met.
And lastly, I love how this video connects our roles in mortality to our potential to become like our Heavenly Father. I believe that fathers especially can have such a profound sense of the eternities, progression, and divine fatherhood, just as mothers can likewise learn and experience a similar sense of profundity as they too acquire God-like traits and better understand their divine nature and the role and qualities of our Heavenly Mother. When we examine and explore the relationship we can have with our divine parents, truly understand how close and loving that connection can be, we are softened and filled with wonder, awe, and gratitude at the small miracles we witness. We, even as mortal adults, become as little children as we grow more sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and increase our desire to continue learning and growing. For, even as adults, there is still so much to yet be learned, to apply, to discover and understand. Our Heavenly Father (and Mother!) are very aware of us, provide for us, enlighten us, love us, help us see and connect things of eternal worth to what may so often seem irrelevant and mortal.
By golly, the Lord sure is good to us!
No comments:
Post a Comment