The violin was my primary instrument for several years. One of my teachers told me the secret to being a great violinist. “Everyone thinks the great violinists never make a mistake. They actually make plenty of mistakes. The difference between a good violinist and a great violinist is this: The great ones are paying attention and assessing each note as it is made. They make the necessary adjustments so quickly no one even notices the original mistake.”
Parenting, especially Christian parenting is as tough as learning to play an incredibly difficult instrument like the violin. It’s easy to get discouraged when you see a “perfect” parent who seems to know how to parent flawlessly. The secret is the “perfect” parent is no more perfect than any other parent.
The secret to being a “perfect” parent is the willingness to assess your parenting choices, skills and results constantly as you go through the day. Then those same parents take that assessment and make any necessary adjustments almost immediately. They don’t parent blindly, not assessing their results until their child ends up in serious trouble. They don’t notice a problem and then wait days, weeks, months or years to make corrections. They are aware, in the moment, constantly assessing and adjusting their parenting.
Continue reading What Great Violinists Can Teach You About Parenting
Ever feel like you are trying to juggle seventeen balls at once, but keep dropping them? Parenting can be overwhelming at times. Trying to be a Christian parent and point your kids towards God seems like it adds a whole additional layer of to-do’s to your already multi-page list. Parenting your children so they grow to be active, productive Christians just seems impossible at times.
Have you ever been exposed to one of those moms? When we started homeschooling our daughter years ago, I ran into quite a few of them. You know, the mom who can homeschool eleven children in different grades. Of course, most of them have college degrees by the age of sixteen. She also makes all of their clothes, helps on the family organic farm and grinds her own grain to make flour for her homemade bread. I mean really…makes her own flour!
We recently visited our daughter who is studying abroad in Germany. At dinner time, we noticed something interesting. As we entered a restaurant that was nearly empty and asked for a table, we were politely told there were no tables as they were all reserved. Our daughter would promise them we would eat quickly, and a table would magically become open. As we looked at the reservation times that had denied us a table, they were often several hours in the future.