Written By: Kari Wiegand
There is nothing like parenting to highlight our own strengths and weaknesses. It is SCARY being responsible for other humans’ growth, learning, and development. For instance: I’m not crafty. At all. I can follow step-by-step instructions to produce (basic) crafts, and I enjoy it when I do, but my personality doesn’t crave that creative outlet to start making things on my own. As a result, sometimes, I feel like my children may suffer. I mean, even the crayons and markers aren’t super accessible. Not because I don’t want to fuel my children’s creativity, I just legitimately don’t think about it very often.
This past Sunday, my 3-year-old brought home his first craft from church. I was so proud of him. I was reminded that God supplies people and places to help cover my blind spots. Now that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t make an effort. I want to raise well-rounded individuals. But when I end up going a whole week without thinking about getting out my (very limited) craft supplies, I’m so grateful that there are opportunities to spark that desire in my kids.
I don’t want to rely solely on others, though. So what am I going to do about it? Well, I’d love to tell you that I’m going to commit to at least 20 minutes a day of art time, but with a 3-year-old, an 8-month-old, and, well….life, coupled with my lack of crafty desire, that just isn’t realistic. I’m all about baby steps, people. I’m going to focus on getting 20 minutes of craft time for the week.
I’ve been praying for God to point out my blind spots and weaknesses so that I can put an action plan in place to expose my kids to things I wouldn’t necessarily choose to do. Do you know what’s cool? On top of bringing things to mind, God has been showing me just how much my kids have absorbed from the things we have done.
So yes, let’s strive to strengthen our own weaknesses, but let’s also praise God and give thanks for the support He puts in place and for the fact that our children are resilient. I’d love to hear how you deal with parenting in areas of personal weakness.
Written By: Kari Wiegand
