Passionate Parenting

I think I was sick 20 of the 31 days of January... which meant that during nap time I was napping instead of writing (or vaccuming or cooking). I also just haven't had a lot of words lately.

But I was finally thinking some thoughts this morning that I wanted to share with you...

One of my occasional indulgences is watching The View. On behalf of stay-at-home-moms everywhere, I will admit I am more than a little ashamed to write that...I can just hear my dad now, "stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason Katie." Oh well. My name is Katie and I watch The View. Sometimes I'm folding laundry or feeding E and sometimes I'm just watching.

The other day "the ladies" were talking about the conflict women have between working and raising a family and the pros/cons of starting a family early vs. focusing on your career, etc. Whoopi Goldberg said one thing that stuck with me as I went on with my day, which was, "You have to be passionate about parenting."

And I thought to myself, you really do. To be a great parent anyway. It's no different than any other pursuit in life.

That's one reason I decided to quit my part-time job this week - so I could give myself more wholeheartedly to Eli when I'm at home. That's why we decided that we wanted to homeschool our children. It's something I'm passionate about, raising the children God gives us to the best of our ability.

But some days there doesn't seem to be a lot to get passionate about. The house is messy, the weather is icky, the Squirt is cranky and passion seems to be about the furthest emotion from my heart. Those are the days you just have to suck it up and push through.

And all of this brings me to what I wanted to share this morning: I read a blog called Ragamuffin Soul. The blogger behind the blog, Carlos Whittaker, used to lead worship at our church among other things. He is a passionate parent. The real reason I read his blog is for the occasional times he posts things like this:

Just being a dad. But parenting from the heart.

Passionate parenting. That's what I'm striving for today.