A Positive Change

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'
Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is always a new resolution when starting the new year, whether it's Exercise More, Eating Better, or Making plans to do more with your family.  Make sure whatever your yearly change is that you make the best of it.  As people we need to be a little more creative when coming up with our yearly resolutions.  Let's try to do things like help less fortunate people, start positive organizations to influence better living, and maybe become a big brother or big sister.  Everyday we need to make changes in our lives to help bring about a better place for the youth to come.  Sometimes it starts with changing yourself to be a better person before you can influence positivity on the world.  We always seem to consider making changes in ourselves for the new year, but never really think about what we can do to help spark change in someone else's life for the new year.  It's important to realize what will help spark change in our communities and feed that, because without change in our community how will our youth have a chance.  There is so much negative influence out there for our children to witness it is kind of sad.  There are not many after school programs to influence change, the leadership in our communities is lacking as well.  In January we celebrate one of the most influential leaders of any generation Dr. Martin Luther King.  Dr. King's dream was that all cultures and would get along despite all of the negativity in the world he wanted this world to change so he did all he could to help it do so.  It seems like although part of his dream has come true that little black boys and little white boys could pay together without any negative feedback there is still a hint of racism still brewing in our communities.  After 50+ years there has been some change, but it shouldn't end with Dr. King we should all do our part in making sure that life as we know it gets better.  I believe the only way to really get that done is to influence the upcoming generations of children, we have to feed their mind with positivity that cannot be broken.  If we can teach an individual at the age of 4 to play the drums then we should be able to get through to a 10 year old on what's right and what's wrong.  So when you thing of making your change in this new year, be sure to think about those who really need change and help them.

Parenting

As parents do you ever feel unappreciated in your family? If so this usually means you have forgotten a fundamental rule when it comes to being successful in family relationships. If you ever feel under appreciated in your family this blog is exactly for you. Here is a story that Im sure we all can relate too, something I heard from a father recently. 

I’d had about as much as I could handle for one day.
My computer was acting up, I was tired from a weekend with little sleep, and I was working in a yard that would soon need an industrial strength lawn mower  to cut it. Kids activities were crowding an already crowded schedule, and there seemed like no time to relax. When do other people find the time to do all these things?
As I entered my house, I marveled at how sore a human body could get from yard work. I was still annoyed that my kids had left stuff in the backyard after repeated requests to pick them up. I’d been noticing that the rest of my family had done their share of relaxing while I toiled in the yard. I needed about a month to get caught up, and I was not ready for any more to be put on my plate. At that very moment of course is when I am asked to help with dinner or do the dishes just as I would love to relax. In my head I had an angry response about why I couldn't help and didn't feel like helping. But, I decided that wouldn't really make things better and I discussed with the wife how I could help with dinner. I was thinking to myself how unappreciated I am and how nobody notices the hard work I put in doing laundry, dishes, helping the kids with homework, in addition to teaching my son how to throw a fastball, etc etc. The thing that this person is missing is the fact that we are not "owed" love by our family. Our job as parents is to discover love as the fundamental fact of life. It is to bring this expression of our love into the world. Fathers go through periods when they feel “outside” of their family. We feel neglected, or we feel invisible. Or, we may feel like we’re simply a “paycheck.” That is when we have to re double our efforts to show our endless love for our family.
When you begin to feel like you are being taken for granted  you should be proud of that. It is like a badge of honor to know that your family expects the best from you and they get that day in and day out. It's so easy to overlook the fact that you are loved unconditionally by your family when you feel like you are being unappreciated, but the fact is by knowing that people are not meaning to take advantage of you in that way should help you realize that sometimes it's easy to forget how much someone tries to keep you happy.  It's always important to communicate with others especially if you feel unappreciated, tell them how you feel, tell them what they can do to help ease your feelings of being unappreciated, but most of all tell them why you make the sacrifices for them so that they understand why you put the effort in that you do.
When providing for others you should always take some time out for yourself to keep your mind at ease. Go to the gym, play sports, or just take the time to relax on the weekend, when providing for your family you deserve a little R&R!