Looking Back At Our Summer Accomplishments

With summer drawing to a close, I have been looking back at some of our accomplishments in the last 3 months.

Our dughter started the summer being too afraid to jump into the pool, even with her swimming vest on. She loved swimming, but she did not like going completely underwater. We tried to force her to do things, but she just screamed through the whole ordeal and was mad at us afterwards. What helped the most was having other kids her age over for a swim party and seeing that other kids would go down the slide, jump in the pool, and go completely underwater and have a great time. Slowly, after the party, she started putting her face in the water. Then she started swimming without her jacket (daddy taught her to swim) and jumping in with her jacket on. After we got home from our big trip, she started jumping in without the jacket and going down the water slide.

Our 3 year old son was also afraid of jumping in the pool. Now he does, while wearing his big floaty swim suit. The biggest accomplishment for him is just in the last week he is finally potty training. He tells us if he has to go. He had 2 accidents this past weekend, but other than that he is doing fabulous. What a long year it has been. I have been trying to train him for a year. He would go if I took him, but wouldn't tell me if he needed to go and would just make a big mess.

My 18 month old son started sleeping through the night just this summer. He is still not a great sleeper, but I am finally getting some sound sleep. Yee-haw! Plus, I finally weaned him from nursing about 6 weeks ago. It took a little bit longer than I had wanted, but it is finally done. ( I may have to blog about my nursing experiences at a later time.) Also, he started the summer hating the pool. Now he likes it. (Don't worry grandma and grandpa, daddy was nearby in this picture. The baby is never out of arm's reach when we are near the pool.) Isn't he a cutie?

I have learned a lesson in all of this - the kids had to be the one to decide that they could do it. I couldn't force them, or when I did force them, it all ended in frustration for everybody. Could all of these things been done a little earlier? Perhaps. Maybe I could have created situations that encouraged them more. Now, with all of these accomplishments behind us, I think, "Those things weren't so bad. Why did I get so frustrated?"

I do know that the kids acted just the way I act sometimes. When I have to learn somthing new, I don't enjoy being forced to do anything. I need to make the decision to change, before change will be even attempted. I think that is how it is at church too. A preacher can preach until he is blue in the face, but until the listener can say, "I need to change my ways", than nothing will get done. I think that can be very disheartening to a pastor of a church. What can pastors do to encourage change?