Tuesday, September 16, 2008

......Because it is important to me!

When Mandi was 3 and taking swimming lessons, she cried every morning when she woke up and said," I don't want to go to swimming lessons." Then she cried the whole way to the pool.

I wanted to say, "O. K., you don't have to do it. I don't like making you do it either. It is hard for you, so you can quit." So I asked her instructor how to handle it.

She said just to keep telling her, "It is important for you to do this." So I did and I'm not sure it helped her any, but it did help me.

Then, this past summer, when I was visiting my brother Roger, he was telling me about how he motivated his middle school basket ball players. He started the beginning of the year with an illustration using toilet paper. He said, "Just think about what you do with this. Why do you do it? Because it is important to you! It probably wasn't important to you when you were little, so you might not have used it, but now it is important to you." Any time his players would make excuses, he would just say, "You do what is important to you."

Just last week, I found myself feeling bitter about some of the tasks that I felt forced to do, like housework, getting the 10th glass of juice for Libby, and making kids do schoolwork when they would rather watch a movie. So I asked myself, " Why do you do the things you do? " I answered, "Well, because they are important to me." I felt empowered instead of enslaved. " Yes, it is important to me to have a clean bathroom. It is important to me to have healthy kids. It is important to me that my kids get the best education possible."

So, I do what I do because it is important to me!!!!!

10 comments:

Cheryl said...

nothing like good old attitude adjustments! love it!

ann marie said...

I love it. What a great thing to keep in mind. I am going to put that on my fridge as a reminder. And that tiolet paper story is funny.

crispy said...

Excellent!

My family uses the phrase, "because it is the right thing to do".

Smith Schoolhouse said...

I like this too. I can imagine Roger telling that story!

MYstory of HIStory said...

Hmmm---now that I better understand why I do what I do...any tips to motivate kiddos to do more of what's important to ME?! :) Just kidding - sort of :)

I like your blog title. There's a song sung by Michael Card that says, to the effect:

- ...the power of paradox opens(ed?) your eyes & blinds those who say they can see....-

- ...when we in our weakness believed we were strong, He became helpless to show we wrong.

etc....

Randi Sue said...

Mystory of History,

That is my goal, to teach my kids to do what they do because it is important to them.

I think I have heard that song and really like it. It has been a while though.

Tiffany said...

This post came at a good time for me. I'm feeling like there is no way I can ever keep up with everything and I'm weary of trying. I need that reminder that I do this because it is important to me and I want it to be important to them.

BeckyJoie said...

Excellent post!

Leisa said...

I love this post!! A welcome reminder when we are in the midst of the day to day drudgery...

Emily said...

I'm going to remember that. Thanks for sharing the story!