Whoever said that “too much of a good thing is wonderful” was wrong. Our family, and me in particular, have been suffering from too much of a good thing. Tennis, swimming, soccer, vacations, church volunteer work, ministering, piano, cello, education, cross country, choir, orchestra – none of them are bad things, right? So, why not do them all?
After a mom mini-breakdown, some counseling with my husband and some wise advice from my bishop I realized that we needed to scale back. Although I tried so hard not to do it, I was caught on the Patti Perfect treadmill somehow believing that if I did not develop every one of my children’s talents, bake perfect meals, keep my house perfectly clean and serve every single person in the neighborhood, there was something wrong with me.
My husband and I sat down and listed all of our activities. We put pluses by the important ones, and 0’s by the ones that required a lot of output but we weren’t getting a lot of return from. Not surprisingly, the list toppers included fun times together as a family, simple meals together and family gospel study. Least important – sports. Then we sat down and had a two hour very painful family council. The result – move family home evening to a different night and each kid got one talent-related activity – period.
Painful? Yes. But the longer we raise children the more we realize that family time together is precious. And that some things we stressed out about so much with our older kids don’t matter as much as they thought we did.
Dallin H. Oaks said: “We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families.” If you or your family is struggling with this his talk “Good, Better, Best” is worth a read.
I thinned my sunflowers today. It was hard, hot and tedious but when I was finished, my garden looked a whole lot better. Sometimes, we need to plant and sometimes we need to prune. It was pruning time at our house this week.