Consistent Calmness

Do you have children?

Are you consistently calm as you deal with them?

I am studying a fascinating book entitled “Parenting A House United”, and the brilliant author Nicholeen Peck suggests that for parents to be able to establish a “house united,” one of the first steps is to learn to be calm.

She quotes William George Jordan, who wrote:

“Calmness is the rarest quality in human life. It is the poise of a great nature, in harmony with itself and its ideals. It is the moral atmosphere of a life … self-reliant, and self-controlled. Calmness is singleness of purpose, absolute confidence, and conscious power,–ready to be focused in an instant to meet any crisis.”*

Wouldn’t it be great to have “absolute confidence”, and to be “ready to be focused in an instant to meet any crisis”?

Mrs. Peck suggests that even though the natural response to challenges is to react from our emotions, we can train ourselves instead to act from our conscience, with wisdom and patience – in other words, calmly.

Life with children can get to the point where it feels like constant conflict. It’s refreshing to think that, with conscious effort, you can instead become confident, focused, and calm – in any situation.

I love that thought. I do believe our minds are capable of much more than we usually achieve. If I can train myself to act peaceably in all situations, imagine what home life would look like, and how much happier everyone around me will be – and how much happier I will be!

Proverbs 25:28 reads, “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls.” In those days, the walls of a city were its protection. When I don’t rule my spirit, my spiritual protection evaporates, too, and I am a slave to my emotions.

One more quote from Mr. Jordan: “Everything that is great in life is the product of slow growth; the newer, and greater, and higher, and nobler the work, the slower is its growth, the surer is its lasting success.”

It looks like I’m off on a long journey. I take courage knowing that “the slower its growth, the surer is its lasting success.”

So, slowly, here I go. One day, I will be consistently calm!