day 218: organization—personal organizational strategies: introduction to “discipline yourself first”

Once our priorities are well established—we have a genuine list of priorities that God has led us to and we have the means (the objective steps to carry out these priorities)—we need all the help we can get to fulfill what God has led us to. This is where daily organization comes into play.


Like everything else in our lives, we can only implement things in our homes and families to the extent that we have implemented them in our own lives first. That is what makes parenting so challenging before we ever even start “parenting.” Our children have never, and will never, follow the adage: “Do what I say, not what I do.”


As parents, we must have personal disciplines in place before we can help our children develop disciplines. We cannot expect our children to prioritize their schoolwork and get it done each day before play if we ourselves shirk our labors for fun before our jobs are completed. We cannot expect our children to keep their rooms picked up when we leave clothes and paperwork lying about. And on and on. Wowsie, being a parent is tough!


For several days, I will spend some time and space discussing how we can organize and discipline ourselves—in order that we can organize and discipline our children and homes. (And hopefully, we will teach our children the character qualities of diligence, responsibility, “stick-tu-a-tive-ness,” resourcefulness, reliability, neatness, order, and more in the process.)


I have learned so many life lessons in my parenting adventure! I will share many of those pertaining to getting things done and organizing over the next couple of weeks.


In the meantime, I leave you with something to ponder: What expectations have you had of your children in the areas of organization, diligence, responsibility, etc. that you have trouble with yourself? Brainstorm or journal ideas about how you can “fix” yourself before you try to fix your kids. I have always been amazed at how much easier it is to help my children in an area of my strength (or at least an area in which I am working on improving). I think you will find the same.