Validation

Leaning my weight into the table as the speaker talked about invalidating your spouse, it was a marriage lecture I was attending, but I suddenly was applying it to parenting. Of course I was... that's what moms do, apply everything to parenting, could be one of the reasons I needed a marriage lecture (chuckle). 

Truth be told, I identified with this term INVALIDATING, in the way I spoke to my daughter. I understood at that moment that when I try to tell her she doesn't feel a certain way, or what she meant to say or do was this, it is invalidating. My daughter's emotional expressions were dealt with appropriately and I have responded inconsistently, which does not allow much room for confidence. 

The reflection of myself in the mirror of life, 
stung like a bee as I was reminded about the past corrections I had made as a mother. How thankful I am that it IS possible to change and our relationship can be nurtured back to vibrancy.

When change is on the menu where do you look to learn, to read, to follow, to get knowledge about what you need to know. In this vast world of easy access anything, it can be overwhelming to the searching mind.

Narrowing my search has made it easy to weed through the constant bombardment of media. The advice I seek, the books I read, the sites I visit and the people I want to emulate, all have a peace that comes from the Savior. We have already been saved from our poor judgement,  backwards priorities and our scaring invalidation. We have been set free to choose and I choose life, grace, forgiveness and most of all change. 

I want to validate others in all my relationships but mostly with my daughter, so she will know in the deepest core of her being that she is loved unconditionally not just by her mother, who is still being molded herself, but also by the potter, the creator of ALL heavens and earth! The journey begins to discovering who Sky truly is, who she is created to be and not who I think she should be. 

But now, O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and we all are the work of your hand.

Isaiah 64:8