The great discovery

I struggled and joggled through my working years (up till now); I still do not think I have the right balance between home and work.  Once I feel I am getting it right on the one side, I am very much likely to be compromising on the other.  I tried reading time management books, exercising certain disciplines as far as possible; perhaps it helped a bit, but I still haven’t achieved my ideal balance.

I made up my mind though that I was going to be very committed to work between the hours of 8-5pm on weekdays as expected, make Saturdays my family day and Sunday for Church and Church meetings.  Meaning these will be the primary activities that will take priority for those earmarked days/timing, but I could actually flex these if it becomes very necessary.

I always look forward to my Saturdays.  We quickly do the cleaning; arrange our lunch pack sometimes and off we go.  We love to explore new outlets for fun.  Unfortunately, there are not too many fun outlets this part of the world.  Often times we spend a good part of the day swimming.

We went swimming this day and I noticed my son suddenly jumped into the pool at the deep end.  I was alarmed, as he wasn’t yet good in swimming and will usually restrict himself to the shallow end.  But before I knew it, I actually saw him pop up and swim across the length of the pool back to his comfort zone.  I was dazed.  I couldn’t help asking him where that courage suddenly emerged from.  Then I found his response very intriguing, he said ‘I just discovered a secret’.   I was very much interested in what this secret could be, and then he said to me ‘You have to first believe in yourself, and then anything is possible’.  What a great discovery!  He actually did minister to me in ways he did not know.

After this discovery, each time I was helping him out with his studies and he was finding it difficult and almost getting discouraged, I always said to him, have you forgotten that secret?  You just have to believe in yourself, and then anything will be possible. That spurs a ready smile from him, and then he gets energised again.

I discovered that play times are fun times, wonderful bonding opportunity for the family, time to unwind and also a great learning opportunity for the children.  We should inculcate a bit of it into our family lives.

Prayer point:  O Lord, help me to give my children the right balance of work and play, help my children to develop socially as they develop in other areas of life. Amen.

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