Playing Catch Up

Yep Yep, pretty much got slacker written all over me, right?
I was up in Utah the end of July and gave my new Nephew, Eric, a hard time about not keeping up on their blog....then I looked at ours.....hahaha!
So I guess I need to play catch up or post some amazing epiphany right?
Actually I have had a few of those lately.
Nick and Caitlyn started back to school on August 11th. Along with starting back to school, the also started back in Early Morning Seminary. I must admit, part of me misses not having seminary in our home each morning, but part of me is glad to have them in more of a classroom setting with more kids their ages. I get up and take them over and then have some time in the morning to wait while they are in class.
I decided while I waited that would be an AWESOME time to get my daily scripture study in and so I have been able to read in the scriptures more and to enjoy the insight they give me each day.
Last week, I was waiting in the car, Nick and Caitlyn had already gone in. I noticed kids driving in later and hurrying into the building, then I noticed two kids who had ridden bikes to seminary. They arrived about 15 min late and were clearly out of breath and I could almost feel that feeling from them of fatigue from riding, trying to get bike locks out and set up and knowing they needed to hurry into seminary. At that moment I had a thought enter my mind. I thought how nice would it be if someone was standing there saying "WAY TO GO....YOU MADE IT HERE" and I thought, isn't that part of our job? To encourage those around us to make it? No matter what the goal, to stand up and say "way to go..you are making it" "Way to go...you pushed harder today and succeeded"...."WAY TO GO...YOU MADE IT" How often as parents do we get caught up in our own agenda of only seeing the end goal and forgetting we are all figuring out a way to make it there. I know in my house, I get caught up in the "why didn't you get this done? mode instead of the "WAY TO GO...YOU MADE IT" mode. How often do I say to my kids... Thank you for all you accomplished today?
When I saw those kids make it to seminary, even though they had to ride, even though they were tired, even though they were late...they made it. Nothing else mattered at that moment...they arrived.
We can apply this to our lives as well. Keep our eye on the ultimate goal and then recognize our progress forward rather that berate ourselves for making a mistake or taking longer to get there. How much more progress would we make or would our kids make if the praise coming in was greater than the recognition of what we did NOT get done?
I found myself wanting to jump out of the car and go hug those two kids. I wanted to jump up and down and say "YOU MADE IT, YOU MADE IT....WAY TO GO"