Awake – Ten Days of Intentional Parenting

This is a passion of mine. Actually, living awake, living aware, living joyfully is a passion of mine — one that I long to share. For the next ten days I will be doing a focused approach to Ten Days of Intentional Parenting. It will be a mixture of hands on activities, journal opportunities, memory making, heart seeking and more.

I am thrilled that you are here, right now, to walk this journey with me and others. In fact, as I’ve been writing these words I’ve been thinking about each person who decides to join — whether in just reading or actively participating. You are here, you are reading for a reason.

And that reason? Being a better, more intentional mother.

It takes work. Discipline. Awareness.

Or like I love to say – being awake.

Our culture, our world, our media has the ability to lull us to sleep. We become so used to day after day rolling by so fast that we dull our senses, lose our joy, and parent on auto-pilot. Ten Days to Intentional Parenting will be a journey of waking up. Seeing the small things. Rejoicing. Looking at our own hearts. Seeking out our children’s heart.

And being real.

There are no masks. There is no pretending. This will not make you the perfect parent. I don’t believe in the perfect parent thing — in fact, in my mind,  the perfect parent thing is a lie of this world guaranteed to put us back to sleep. It’s set up to make us feel like we’ve failed, we’ll never measure up, that we’re no good, that we stink, that we just can’t do it.

Not true.

Not true, not true, not true.

You can do it. You can mother with an intentional heart. You can find joy in the every day beautiful moments of life. It is a posture for your heart to live in — a posture of being aware, awake, and really living for today.
Will you join me?

Here’s what to expect: each day, in addition to my post, I will provide a journal page for you to download and print out. Now, if you’re reading this on a Thursday, simply start on a Thursday.  There is no perfect day to start! I will also discuss the day on my facebook page {if you haven’t joined make sure to click findingjoyfacebookpage to join}and we can build community as mothers. You are not alone. We moms are a team — the more we link our arms together the stronger we will become which will make us more confident and intentional with our families.

Today’s journal page? It’s about being awake. Aware. It’s a simple exercise in examining what you do well and what you’d like to see change. And then, there’s a challenge at the end for you to do with your kids. That challenge? Spending a set amount of time with just them. It’s training you, the mom, to not get distracted in our very busy world, and to instead really focus in on the lives that we are blessed to mother.

Tomorrow? Tomorrow I’ll be writing about our hearts, our mothering hearts, and the importance of letting our hearts feel. Part of that? Involves letting go and building up.