Your Life Basics Have to Become Part of You.

My dh and I do a good bit of life coaching at our age. We have lived a bit of life since we were born when Eisenhower was president and lived through the Kennedy assassination, the Apollo moon landing, the bicentennial and 9/11. We have a few wrinkles and gray hairs to prove all of that if anyone should doubt.

I am noticing a theme as we have conversations about life disciplines and life direction. We all struggle with the basics sometimes but I was trying to narrow down my thoughts on the struggle of being a husband, wife, mother, leading a family and having a career.

My thought is this; the things you focus on have to become part of you. Think about that. We all have read books on life disciplines, parenting, career, raising godly children.  Books can be great but do the really change us? Do books really push us forward? Sometime I suppose they do. But what makes things really work? What makes an idea stick? I think it is that what you or your family are about has to come from the heart, from deep down in your soul. You must be passionate about your life disciplines or you will never succeed. We all want an easy fix or a formula that works. Show me the plan and I will go with it.

For me, as a Christian, God has to come first. Ask Him, what do you want us to be about? How do you want us to live as a family? This will be a matter of great prayer. But once you are shown the way, it becomes a passion and you are able, with God's help, to execute.

An example, my husband and I felt a call to home school our children. This was back in the day when homeschooling was relatively new and kind of thought of as a wacky idea. All I know is that God put a call on our life. We had to home school even if that meant moving to another country to pursue that freely, we would have to obey. It was God's plan for us. Have you ever felt that deep down call or passion? If you have you know what I mean. That call is difficult to disobey. Once you have that passion...go for it. Homeschooling was never easy, we  faced daily opposition from family, friends , strangers and from the enemy within but it is what we were called to do.

I heard an interview with actress Jada Pinket Smith, she was asked "How to you manage to be a successful career woman and have a successful family?" Her answer; "Our family comes first, once you have that as a clear path a lot of the other junk just gets pushed to the side." What does she have? A clear vision. And she sticks with it.

So reading books is fine but what is your family's vision? It is fine to look at others lives or to get counsel or ideas from other people but what is it that God is calling you to do? We were challenged one time in a small group to write down a mission statement for our family. Great idea! What are we about? That vision should be clear enough to be narrowed down enough to put on paper. Some people have a heart for service, others have a heart for relationships, some have a heart for work, Whatever the vision is, whatever God has called you to do, go do it. Commit to excellence and do that thing well.
Teach your vision, preach your vision, live your vision so that is does become part of your family identity. Once you grasp that vision you will be on the road to success.

I truly believe that the vision must become part of you in order to live it out. So, ask and you shall receive and then follow the vision. Who knows what great successes or adventures lie ahead?