Live, Love, Blend:
Focus On The Road Ahead
How’s your cup looking today? Half full? Half empty? Or perhaps it runneth over.
Lately mine has been tending toward half empty. In fact, I recently heard someone include my family in a statement about “successful blended families,” and I thought “Ha! What the heck does that mean? Is there even such a thing?.”
– For another great post on emotions in parenting see Better, Not Bitter – Is This Group the Most Stressed Out
Sounds like somebody needs an attitude adjustment. This is not the first time. I have to be careful not to slip into the trap of discontent. When I notice myself wandering down that old, familiar road I have to stop and ask myself 3 questions:
- Where are you trying to go?
- Is whatever it is you’re focused on going to get you there?
- Besides your perspective, what else needs to change?
So if my goal is to have a happy, thriving family and my focus is on every single detail that is going wrong inside our home and within our relationships, I’m definitely on the wrong path. It’s like encountering rocks along a hike and rather than stepping over or kicking them out of the way, I’ve been putting them in my backpack.
– Examples of the rocks can be found in this post 3 Topics You Must Address With Your Partner
Now that I’ve collected all these rocks, the only thing I know to do is to hand them over to God and let Him use them to build something better.
Success in anything takes work. Blended families take a lot more effort than nuclear families, which is why the success rate declines with each subsequent marriage. However, the number of blended families is on the rise, so we must work harder to figure out how to grow and thrive together. It can be done. We can rise to the occasion. Focus. Aim. Climb.
