*September 27th*

A person once said, "I tried to manage my husband's life, although not even able to manage my own. I wanted to get inside his brain and turn the screws in what I thought was the right direction. It took me a long time to realize that this was not my job. I just wasn't equipped for it. None of us are. So I began to turn the screws "in my own head" in the right direction. This has taught me a little more about managing my own life."

How this applies to being a parent is, you must be a parent who teachs your children accountability and responsible by their experiencing reasonable and certain consequences for poor decisions. This includes stopping the habit of asking them in frustration "why" they do the things they do.

Today's Reminder
If my life feels like it's becoming unmanageable, how can I get control? Am I being forced into doing things I don't want to do? If so, this will result in my losing my temper, contriving, conniving and scheming to make things work out the way I want them. My spouse and children will change and grow to higher levels of maturity, but possibly not at the precise moment I wish them too!

An honest effort to manage my own life will open many doors to me that my distorted thinking had kept closed.

"If you cannot make yourself such a one as you wish to be, how can you expect to change another to what you wish them to be?"
(Thomas A'Kempis)

[Taken and fashioned from "One Day At A Time In Al-Anon"
for general family relationships by Jim Hogue, MA, MFTI]