Yoga In My Backyard

My hubby is a do-er. He has what seems like endless energy, so even on Father’s Day (supposedly HIS day), he is up before anyone doing last night’s dishes and running to the store to buy HIS beef tenderloin for HIS barbeque. He even brought me coffee in bed…

As a father he sets the ultimate example of DOING FOR OTHERS; an example set very early on in our sons’ lives so that they have grown up witnessing how a small act (and sometimes a big act) for someone else can make a difference. Father’s Day is an opportunity to say THANK YOU to someone who is a role model; who has made a difference in our lives (whether it be a birth father or another person who has guided us). To all those wise men who have been there as mentors, advisors, supporters, and stand-ins (I will never forget when a good friend, Mike, attended my son’s Father’s Day school function on my husband’s behalf while he was travelling – certainly caused a few eyebrows to raise!), a very HAPPY FATHER’S DAY to you all. And to my own Dad, I love you…

A PARENT’S PRAYER – author unknown

Oh Heavenly Father, make me a better parent.

Teach me to understand my children, to listen patiently to what they have to say, and to answer all their questions kindly.

Keep me from interrupting them or contradicting them.

Make me as courteous to them as I would have them be to me.

Forbid that I should ever laugh at their mistakes, or resort to shame or ridicule when they displease me.

May I never punish them for my own selfish satisfaction or to show my power.

Let me not tempt my child to lie or steal.

And guide me hour by hour that I may demonstrate by all I say and do that honesty promotes happiness.

Reduce, I pray, the meanness in me. And when I am out of sorts, help me, Oh Lord, to hold my tongue.

May I ever be mindful that my children are children, and I should not expect of them the judgement of adults.

Let me not rob them of the opportunity to wait on themselves and to make decisions.

Bless me with the bigness to grant them all their reasonable requests and the courage to deny them privileges that I know will do them harm.

Make me fair, just, and kind. And fit me, Oh Lord, to be loved and respected and imitated by my children.

AMEN