day 11
===
[00:00:00] Yes, of course, our destination is important. Yes, of course, our goals are what keep us excited. But let's be real. Most of our lives are spent in the pursuit of something rather than in the moment of receiving something. We're missing a huge piece of living a balanced and fulfilling life if we overlook the benefit of enjoying and enhancing the journey itself.
That's mindfulness come in. Has the fear of your kids becoming ungrateful ever crossed your mind? Have they demanded something? Have they not said thank you for something? Have you bent over backwards to provide them a life that you dreamed of when you were a kid and they complain about it? Or maybe you're not even there yet.
Maybe you're on the preventative measures end of your journey, and you just want to make positively sure that you're creating an atmosphere of gratitude in [00:01:00] your home. Or maybe you're leaning more towards implementing biblical perspectives into your family, and gratitude is a big part of that. Maybe life has just become so busy, so chaotic, so much, that you recognize your family's need for mindfulness.
Regardless of where you fall with any of that, today is the last official stop on our 12 day roadmap to parenting clarity and purpose in 2024, before we reach our official destination and tie it all together tomorrow. You are in the right place. So let's get started. I wanted to pause for all of our new participants and do a quick introduction.
I tend to not do this nearly often enough because as a consumer, it's something that I don't love to see in every single video. But my name's Katie. I'm the founder of Covenant Collections Christian Parenting Company. I'm the host of the Christian Career Mom podcast. I'm a certified professional coach and a [00:02:00] certified youth parenting and family coach.
I usually just keep that simple and say parenting and family coach. I'm a christian mom. I'm a blogger. I have a children's book almost all of the way through the publishing process. I'm a healthcare professional. I work as a director in a local hospital, and what I really love to do is combine all of the various areas of my life where I've found ways to thrive and find ways to win and incorporate those to make them simple, to make them understandable, to make them easy to implement in your lives while you're busy, and you don't have time to go through all of the trial and error.
To make them work for everyone and ultimately to help you thrive in your families and in your lives as well. My company's mission is to empower Christian parents to build unbreakable family bonds and create a peaceful home, deepen your relationships with God, and find balance and fulfillment in your family life without adding stress to your [00:03:00] plate or sacrificing precious time.
But I think it's important to share our vision as well. Because what's my ultimate goal? What's my ulterior motive? I want Covenant Collections to create a true kingdom impact by filling the world with Christian parenting principles of love and light and faith and create a global community that's dedicated to improving the lives of all children.
That's why I do what I do. That's why I'm here. If you support that, please follow along for the journey. Subscribe, like this video, and introduce yourself as well. Today, your freebie is a gratitude jar activity, and you'll also receive today the freebies from yesterday that I held onto to save you the distraction.
If you haven't watched Day 10's video on self care, please do so. So those freebies are the 30 day self care challenge calendar and the self care affirmation cards. And as of today, you've received 17 [00:04:00] free resources throughout this challenge, and you've got two more coming tomorrow. Those are available by email to anyone who registered for our challenge at covenantcollections.
com slash 2024. You can still register at the end of the challenge. I'll send a wrap up that has links to all of the freebies in case you missed any. And they're available for free inside of our Facebook group, the Christian Parenting Community. And they're also going to be available inside of our brand new membership, the common confident club so that members have everything all of their amazing resources in one place.
So, more on that later, but you can become a member at covenantcollections. com slash okfriends. I want to have a heart to heart. Modern day parenting is hard, right? I mean, to be fair, it's probably never, ever been easy, and every single generation has probably felt like their version was the hardest, but we're just going to acknowledge our struggle for a second, okay?
Modern [00:05:00] day parenting is tough. We have to worry about the outside world and the bad influences seeping into our homes constantly. And it's very hard to prevent. We have days where we're going to wonder if we're doing enough, if we're doing enough of the right things. And if the pace of life or the state of life is going to take a toll on us or our children in ways that we're not prepared to prevent.
So first, take a moment to breathe. Take a deep breath right now. Acknowledge those concerns and feel a bit of comfort that you're not alone in this. You may or may not be the only one in your close circle of friends who has the same fears that you do, or the same convictions that you do to raise your children on a path for the Lord, but you're not alone.
There's a lot of us out here just like you who want the same things and ask God daily to help us do this right. Today is just a genuine conversation [00:06:00] between like minded parents. Who have a desire to raise resilient, happy, good, and grateful children in a world that sometimes makes us wonder if that's going to be the toughest challenge we face.
I'm going to share a little tough love first, and then some encouragement. But to be perfectly honest, our greatest enemy is ourselves. We allow ourselves to get so busy that we end up overwhelmed and stressed and disconnected from one another. We end up with gratitude and mindfulness so far on the back burner that it's not until we're face to face With the consequences of our actions in the form of our child that we really realize we may have missed something I'm not exactly that.
It's not your fault. You're perfect. You're doing everything, right? Just keep trying your best kind of coach. So if that's what you want or need to hear I'm giving you fair warning right now Sometimes it is our fault. We're [00:07:00] far from perfect. We're not doing everything right in our best Sometimes it's not good enough, but that doesn't mean there's no hope.
Of course there is. We just need practical, achievable, proven strategies, commitment to making an effort, awareness of what needs our effort, and Jesus, and we'll be well on our way to creating a more mindful and grateful family. Take a look at Romans 12 too. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing, and perfect will. We have to focus on the word and the will of God if we want our families to become what they're meant to be. What they're capable of and what we pray for them to be. We have to stand up against what's become the norm in this world and goes against all of our values and fills you with [00:08:00] anxiety about your children and whether you're doing enough to protect them.
The good news is if we allow God to transform our minds, we will be able to see what God's good and pleasing and perfect will for our families really is. I love that. We're all performing a quite impressive juggling act of priorities here. Our families, our jobs, our homes, our relationships, our health, our faith.
Some of us are doubling up and juggling a lot of balls that aren't ours to carry. And eventually, we'll drop something, right? But at that point, we rarely get to choose which it is. When it's time for something to fall, everything doesn't just Stop and say, okay, which one are you willing to have shatter on the ground?
Something just falls, something breaks. Are you willing to allow it to be one of those top priority balls? If not, figure out which unnecessary things that you're carrying, [00:09:00] which of the world things that you're carrying, and put them down. It's okay not to be the cool mom. Not to be the party dad. Not to be the acts like she doesn't know you're sneaking out grandma.
It's okay not to say yes to every single sport if they leave you with no time together as a family. If they keep you from going to church for an entire season. If they clean out your bank account and leave you stressed, it's okay to drop the things that will upset someone for a little while, but it's not okay to drop the things that matter for an eternity.
We have to constantly ask ourselves through pretty much every season of life if we're in touch with the things that truly matter the most. We have to be intentional in our focus and our approach because what we're doing isn't just housing these kids until they're old enough to be on their own. We're shaping future generations.
We are raising children who will become adults who will impact the [00:10:00] lives of countless others. We were trusted by God with these souls. With placing them to the best of our abilities on a path that will return to him. Parenting is a huge responsibility and a huge honor. You are trusted, you are chosen, and you are capable.
What happens in our homes will inevitably become a ripple effect. That one drop spreads out wider and wider and has a far reaching effect beyond where it started. If our home isn't a place of mindfulness, where we prioritize self awareness, where we prioritize our mental and emotional and spiritual health.
If our homes aren't a place of gratitude, where we learn to be thankful and generous and loving towards those around us, where we realize how impactful small acts of kindness can be, then the ripple effect Is probably a negative one on the other hand, and we're going to move on to a fully [00:11:00] positive note from here.
Think how big of an impact your efforts in your home can have. If it's the opposite. If you do prioritize mindfulness and gratitude, if those things become the norm to your children, when they go out into this world, that's amazing. That's so valuable, like all of these other things that we've covered through these 12 days.
That is so worth the effort. You're a big deal, okay? What you do matters so much and will matter for generations to come. And it's really important that you realize that. Proverbs 22 6 can encourage you that the efforts you make today will matter tomorrow, even when it's difficult and you start to question it.
Gratitude and mindfulness are biblical. They're virtues. They're values. They improve our lives, our families, and the world around us. They're powerful. They're impactful. Colossians 3, 17 says, And whatever you do [00:12:00] in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the Father through Him.
We're thankfulness. These values in our home will shape the way that our children approach the highs and the lows for the rest of their lives. We're not only meant to be thankful when good things happen, but always Psalms 34, 1 says, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be my lips.
The Bible also encourages us to be mindful, to be present, to not allow worry to consume us. In Matthew 6 verses 25 to 32 that we went over yesterday when we talked about self care, these have so much in common because gratitude is self care and mindfulness is self care. Each of these things contributes to us parenting more intentionally.
More aligned with our values and with full clarity and [00:13:00] purpose in what we're doing, as well as why we're doing it. We're clear on the what, we're clear on the why, now it's time for the how. First we have to pause, which seems kind of silly, but It's the hardest part most of the time, so we can't skip it.
Then we need to reflect on the blessings around us. We need to fight against the rush that there's something else we have to do first and allow a more mindful approach to our interactions with our children. Then we're going to make a gratitude a daily practice sharing something that we're thankful for helps directly fight against the influence of negativity and comparison and entitlement that are trying to seep their ways into your homes.
This can be when you say your prayers, but honestly, I think it should be in addition to your prayers. It could be something that you all do together every single day on the way to school, right before you walk out the door. As soon as you all get home, as you say [00:14:00] goodnight at the dinner table, whenever works for your schedule, but challenge each person to share something that they're thankful for daily and watch what an impact that it has.
Use the communication skills that we learned on day eight and communicate mindfully. Give your full attention to one another. Listen actively. Put your phone away when someone's speaking to you. How quick are we to correct our kids for that and not even realize where they might have learned it from?
Communicating mindfully helps build our connections, and it's also a wonderful way to model these skills in action for our children. Establish routines that allow these actions. To become habits, you can incorporate a bedtime mindfulness routine that everyone does together. You can incorporate a family nature walk on the weekends, a gratitude jar that helps provide a visual reminder.
It's not super complex. It's not super time consuming. It just requires [00:15:00] intentional moments and commitment. Consistency is key, and if you need any additional help in that area, you can revisit day four. Do you see how all of these things really do work together? You've got all of the pieces of the puzzle now.
And tomorrow, we put them all together. Revisit your action plan from day seven. Make sure it's in alignment with your vision, your values, and your why from day one, we make sure we're including God from day three, make sure we've learned from our children, from our challenges, from our success, incorporate communication, connection, mindfulness, gratitude, consistency.
And you'll be well on your way to full clarity and purpose in your parenting journey for 2024. Our giveaways of the Calm and Confident Club with a VIP upgrade for an entire year officially closed today. So we have 12 winners of those giveaways. It's been so fun and so rewarding for me to be able to give that and [00:16:00] see your excitement to get started.
For everyone else, if you're watching this prior to December 15th, you can still join at covenantcollections. com slash club. For only 7 a month and get grandfathered in at that price for life, but receive a complimentary upgrade to VIP benefits as a thank you, as an expression of my gratitude to you for being a founding member of this amazing membership that I'm so excited about because I know it's going to change lives.
If you're watching after December 15th, you can still join us in the membership. You can still join us in VIP. The membership itself will always be 7 a month and to get VIP it will just be 27. So still an extremely good value for everything that you receive as part of the membership. And that's not both.
If you pay VIP, you get everything in both of the memberships for a total of 27. Okay, that's it for today. I'm so thankful for all of you. [00:17:00] This challenge has been long. It's been really good, but I think I'm going to make future challenges a bit shorter. Feel free to share your feedback with me in the comments, in the Facebook group, in the membership.
Wherever you want is fine. I'm kind of everywhere. Do me a favor and like and subscribe while you're here. I would just love to hear what you think, what you want to learn next, and what you think the ideal length of a challenge type of training series should be. I'll see you tomorrow.
