This Wednesday morning I had to comfort and cajole my 2 year old daughter into attending her preschool.  I was grateful for the parenting savvy to figure out what works.

I took a day off of schoolwork and did some much needed errands.

I got to talk to a friend in the program.

This afternoon my son didn't want to go to his baseball game.  It was that moment that every parent dreads when the kid doesn't want to push himself to meet his commitments.  I sympathized with him as he has had an evening event every night this week and was worn out.  I had to use a mix of guiding him to rest and eat, talking to him about commitments, informing him of our expectations and consequences, taking it easy on him.  Again I was grateful for the savvy to help him find his self-motivation.  I was proud of him for changing his attitude on which he was adamantly set.

At the game I encountered a personal dilemma.  Our coach was putting an intense amount of pressure on the boys as they started out rusty.  He was hounding them after every pitch.  I appreciate the coach's enthusiasm and ability to motive the boys.  But, in this case he was making them more tense than they needed to be.  A large part of the lineup struck out the first time around.  I think about half of them would have done better if he would have backed off a bit.  I feel for him though because he really made his wife mad by harassing his son.  I tried to get him to ease up and let his son settle in.

In the end all the boys battled back from adversity and stepped up to win.  My son got a hit and made a run at a crucial time in the game.  The coach told me he really needed that run.

Thanks be to God.