One of my favorite parts of my day is putting my two sons, Dillon and Jonah, to bed each night.
Josh, my hubby, and I created a night-time routine with our kids early on. We made—and continue to make—so many great moments in the rhythm of our nighttime regimen. We help them get ready for bed: shower, PJs, and brush their teeth. Once in bed, we lie with each one, individually.
We say their prayers, we recount their day and talk about the best and worst parts, we come up with our own off-the-cuff bedtime stories and we help them visualize what they want to manifest in their dreams. Now that we are spending more time together as a family I find our consistency slipping.
The Real Gem in Establishing Habits
I think we occasionally take for granted the beauty that comes from habits. Well, at least for Josh and me; the kids hold us to it (or try to) every night, having become accustomed to it.
For us, there are nights where we finally sit down on the couch for the first time at 9 pm or stare down a deadline and just want to finish it without interruption so the workday is not further extended. For small and random reasons, we sometimes find ourselves in a sudden moment of weakness. We would tell them “head to bed, we’ll be up in a minute” knowing that minute turns into an hour. The opportunity quickly missed.
The Effect of Choices
One night, when Jonah was seven years old I told him a story about a magic plant in his room and how every morning when he touched it, he became filled with super powers. For months he knew he had superpowers.
When our firstborn son, Dillon—now thirteen—was in my belly, our doctors (and the tests) determined that he had a high likelihood of having developmental issues. At the time, a decade ago, Josh and I had to dig deep to try to find answers. Talking, researching, praying, pondering, meditating, and ultimately finding a joint belief that it would be okay. Several people close to us questioned our decision to keep moving forward.
Delivery day and ran high with emotion over our perfectly healthy baby boy.
Every day, our choices conceive and create. It’s amazing to see what—and who—we influence.
I remind myself of this in small and random moments of weakness to overlook the importance of the habits we set for our lives.
