The Collect for today, Easter Thursday, has to do with showing in our lives that which we profess to believe.  It seemed a very nice way to say that statement so many of us have heard: “Don’t just talk the talk, but walk the walk.”

In many times, this can be the most daunting part of parenting. Our lives become transparent and our children see all the parts, even the parts we think we have hidden from them.  We cannot be less than our authentic selves; our children know.

This leaves us with really having to work on ourselves.  What do we honestly think is real, true, sacred, noble?  How do we show this in our lives to our children without saying a word?  Are there areas in our lives that don’t match up with what we say we believe?  And if this is so, how do we make all areas of our lives align with what we say we believe?

This alignment comes with sacrifice sometimes, and requires an exertion of will.  If we do the same things over and over again with less than satisfactory results, than we must overcome our own inertia and do something different.

We live in this strange age where thoughts and feelings fly over technology; action is done by a push of a button. We have forgotten how to live in concert with the season and almost seem surprised when weather intrudes on our lives.  It leads to a situation,where quite frankly, we often don’t have to do much  exertion of  our own will anymore.  I wrote a post about developing the adult will some time ago and was just looking at it today:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/04/30/the-adult-will-and-how-to-develop-it/

Rudolf Steiner gave an interesting exercise to help in the development of initiative and control of the will.  He proposed choosing an activity that is simple and perhaps unrelated to what you normally would do at that time of day, such as just opening and shutting a door or window or watering a plant, and do it at the same time every day.  

I think the other piece of developing the will that can be hard in this day and age is  to think and come to grips with the fact that we cannot “have it all” and when we do things on a consistent basis that are not in line with our professed values, it ripples an effect into our lives, and into our children’s lives.  So, I ask you does it foster in you the real, the true, the sacred, the noble?

I know in this impersonal electronic medium, these thoughts have the possibility of coming off as unloving or holier than thou or damning.   None of this is my intent.  It is just questions for you to ask yourself: how does my walk match my talk and how could I align these two things more and more for my own holistic health and that of my children?

Many blessings,

Carrie