{"id":8792,"date":"2012-04-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.familylife.com\/flministries\/?p=8792"},"modified":"2012-04-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-18T00:00:00","slug":"what-i-hope-to-accomplish-as-a-mom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/articles\/topics\/parenting\/foundations\/character-development\/what-i-hope-to-accomplish-as-a-mom\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Hope to Accomplish as a Mom"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

We just celebrated my son\u2019s first birthday, and I couldn\u2019t help but reflect on the growth of both my son and myself throughout the last year.<\/p>\n

I laughed when I thought back on the sleepless nights, not because my son was awake, but because I was worried that he might be.\u00a0 I also remember the first time I had to take him to a doctor\u2019s appointment, and I was completely at a loss as to how I was going to feed him and get him there on time.\u00a0 I opted to feed him in the waiting room, and he cried all the way there.\u00a0 I was almost in tears myself.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long, life-changing year.\u00a0 I\u2019m amazed at the similarities between my son and me at his birth\u2014he was new to the world, and I was new to the world of parenting.\u00a0 Neither of us had a clue what we were doing.\u00a0 But we\u2019ve both grown to understand each other and perhaps even the world around us in better ways.<\/p>\n

Since I\u2019ve had a year to reflect, I now have an idea of what kinds of things I want to accomplish as a mom.\u00a0 Recently I was inspired to write down my goals as both a reminder to myself when parenting gets tough and as a declaration.<\/p>\n

Parenting isn\u2019t just a manual task, making sure another person stays alive.\u00a0 It\u2019s also the shaping of a life.\u00a0 In some ways, there is very little I can do to control how my children turn out\u2014only God can change the heart and save a soul.\u00a0 But I want to do all that I can to give my children, not just life, but LIFE.<\/p>\n

Let me encourage you to do the same.\u00a0 My list is somewhat haphazard, in no particular order and not very fancy.\u00a0 If you try too hard to make it poetic, you might scare yourself out of doing it.\u00a0 Just jot down some things and see where it leads you.\u00a0 If you want to rewrite it later, you always can when you feel up to the task. The important thing now is to get it down on paper.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure my list will change as the years go on, but for now, here are my goals as a mother.<\/p>\n

1. I want to raise children who know God and know there is a Savior.<\/strong>\u00a0 I know I can\u2019t control their hearts, but I can do my best to show them the way.\u00a0 Deuteronomy 6:6-12 tells us to pass on the stories of God\u2019s power and redemption to the next generation so they may not forget all that He\u2019s done for us.<\/p>\n

2. I want to give my children life skills.<\/strong>\u00a0 I want them to know how to cultivate a garden, care for animals, care for themselves.\u00a0 I want them to know how to care for a home\u2014wash dishes, vacuum the floor, wash clothes, and generally pick up around the house.\u00a0 I want them to know how to organize, keep a budget, and sew on a button (these go for boys and girls).<\/p>\n

3. I want to instill godly values and disciplines in their lives<\/strong>\u2014loving others, compassion, generosity, kindness, keeping their tempers, problem-solving skills (see 1 Thessalonians 5:6-11 and Galatians 5:22-23).<\/p>\n

4. I want to teach them how to see things from others\u2019 perspectives.<\/strong> When you can step into someone else\u2019s shoes, it opens up a whole new world of perception.\u00a0 It gives you compassion, empathy, understanding, and therefore, patience and graciousness.\u00a0 You can more easily interpret unspoken communication and anticipate needs.\u00a0 To step into someone else\u2019s shoes gives\u00a0you the ability to understand people.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 I want to teach my children to listen<\/strong>\u2014really listen\u2014not just hear when others are talking.\u00a0 To look someone in the eye and give him or her their full attention.<\/p>\n

6. I want to teach my children confidence and courage.<\/strong>\u00a0 I want them to be able to stand for right and for good even in the face of opposition and be the one to stand even when no one else does.<\/p>\n

7. I want to say \u201cno\u201d often enough<\/strong> to keep them from taking for granted all that they have.\u00a0 And say<\/strong> \u201cyes\u201d often enough<\/strong> to teach them the satisfaction of generosity.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all I have for now.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure this list will continue to grow as my children do.\u00a0 But I think it\u2019s a good start.\u00a0 If for no other reason, I\u2019m glad I wrote this because when I lose my vision as a parent and need to be set straight, I\u2019ll have this list to guide me.\u00a0 When I hit another milestone in my son\u2019s life, I can look back on this list and make sure I\u2019m still headed in the right direction.\u00a0 And when I look back on my parenting after all my children have been launched into this world, I can be satisfied knowing that I parented them with purpose.<\/p>\n

Won\u2019t you do the same?<\/p>\n

\n

Copyright \u00a9 2009 by Sabrina Beasley McDonald. All rights reserved. Used by permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parenting isn\u2019t just a manual task\u2014it\u2019s the shaping of a life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":8793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Parenting isn\u2019t just a manual task\u2014it\u2019s the shaping of a life.","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2850],"tags":[],"equip-category":[],"cwp_profile":[3059],"class_list":["post-8792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character-development","cwp_profile-sabrina-beasley-mcdonald"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2018\/04\/what-i-hope-to-accomplish-as-a-mom-1040x326-1.jpg","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2018\/04\/what-i-hope-to-accomplish-as-a-mom-1040x326-1.jpg",1024,321,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Dave Meritt","author_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/author\/dave-merittcru-org\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Parenting isn\u2019t just a manual task\u2014it\u2019s the shaping of a life.","meta_box":{"_cloudsearch_visibility":"","profile_obj_manual_select":false,"profile_obj":false,"separator":false,"enable_link":false,"login_restricted":"","content_type":"","disclaimer_banner":"","currency":false,"pricing_subtext":false,"element_type":false,"date_field":false,"date_format":false,"theme_header_position":"","post_header_is_sticky":"","is_header_overlay":"","series":false,"ignore_sticky":false,"conditional_blocks_category":false,"cta_selection":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8792"},{"taxonomy":"equip-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/equip-category?post=8792"},{"taxonomy":"cwp_profile","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cwp_profile?post=8792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}