Dear Kids,
When this year (2018) started, your dad and I chose our theme of "Habits" for our focus this year. Instead of doing New Years Resolutions or goals, we choose a theme every year to base our focus around. It has been SUPER successful for us to actually follow through on our lifestyle improvement.
Well, I knew that we had to work on habits for this year, because we have been slowly letting the little things go... and I was REALLY feeling it. I felt like my soul was starting to die and that we weren't connected at all and I was losing my personal drive and focus.
We just finished our first six week habit period, and we have so far loved it! It is proving very successful for us. Something that REALLY helps Brent is to have a reward at the end of the 6 weeks. And it helps us to stay accountable to each other. So when we started we decided that our reward would be to have a getaway together. We went for 1.5 days (2 nights) down to Vegas, relaxed, enjoyed each other, saw a show, ate GREAT food and just hung out.
It was SOOOO rejuvenating! I can't even tell you how much it helped my soul to rejuvenate and help our relationship to reconnect.
But I have to write about our 6 week habit periods. It has been WONDERFUL to work on something together again. We haven't really had a together focus for a while, and it has helped us to reconnect in a way that we haven't felt for a while. The fun part is that we don't have the same habits we are working on... I have 3 different focuses than your dad does, but we are completely supporting each other to fulfill our habits, especially because if we don't follow through then we don't get the reward at the end! We have to give ourselves that reward, or it just isn't the same motivation, especially for your dad.
My first 6 week habit focus was going to bed before 11pm, not eating after 6pm (or dinnertime), and having a REALLY good scripture study atleast 3 days of the week. Now the funny thing is that, these are NOT hard goals. They really aren't... it's not necessarily stretching me to do these habits... but something that both your dad and I have realized is that CONSISTENCY with our daily little habits after having a family has been a HUGE challenge for us. We have had to start with the very basic habits, because the consistency of actually following through on the small things is what has been extremely difficult. Combine that with time, and there is a losing equation. All of a sudden we didn't have very good habits AT ALL, which is what caused us to change.
I am very happy to say that the consistency of those habits for the first 6 week time period has really jumped me to another dimension as far as my mind set is concerned. I feel like I am accomplishing more, I'm feeling more fulfilled, I'm feeling better about myself because of actually following through with those habits... and one of the greatest things is that it is impacting our kids just by us taking care of our inner vessels first. Talia has noticed everything we are working on and she started reading her scriptures every day on her own because she knew that was one of her dad's habits that he was working on. I love that.
Which leads me to the last point on my thoughts about this. Cleansing our inner vessels first is HUGE for any kind of fulfillment in life. It seems like a "duh" phrase.... but the practicality of actually following through on a consistent basis to do those things necessary to keep our inner vessels clean... THAT is what is hard. Inside of the messiness of everyday living and the craziness of life, it is easy to get to the point where you aren't reading or feeding your soul because you are just crashing into bed exhausted every night. It is easy to get to that place of being so pushed and pulled by the demands of conflict management with kids, stress at work. poopy diapers being thrown around, kids school work. church assignments (you get what I'm saying) to all of a sudden realize that after you get into bed you didn't even say any kind of meaningful prayer that actually helped you to connect with God and Christ.
We have to MAKE TIME FOR HOLINESS. It is imperative in our day and age... and we have to teach our kids how to make time for holiness too. Setting this example is the best way that we know how to start.
I love you so much,
Your Mom
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