Lessons From a Swimming Pool

I took the kids to an indoor swimming pool up in the mountains over the weekend.

It was just a day trip to visit some friends who were vacationing up there.  Wayne was out of town and Sam and Sara had a lot of energy to burn.  I saw it as a win-win situation.

But the dreaded “it” happened.

Shortly after we arrived, some little kid pooped in the pool.  You can handle a poop devo, right?

Not only did the mom and kid act like nothing happened that afternoon, but I discovered that the same thing had happened the night before with the same family.  Can someone say Little Swimmers?

Anyway, the pool closed and the kids scrambled to find something else to occupy them.  Hard to do when the sole reason we were all there was to swim.

It struck me as interesting how that kid’s “deposit” effected the rest of us.

• He wasn’t trying to be hurtful or destructive.
• His intentions weren’t to ruin things for the other swimmers.
• He probably never even considered that the rest of us would care about his “business.“

He was just livin’ his life and doing what he wanted to do.

I think sin can be the same way.

We aren’t necessarily thinking about how our bad choices will affect our children when we engage in sinful activity.

• We don’t connect that our potty mouth comments can essentially “okay” it for our kids to do the same.
• We don’t understand that the horrible things we scream at our husband in anger can cause deep insecurities for our children.
• We don’t see that our self-loathing teaches our kids that they, like us, should think little of themselves.
• We don’t realize that our constant talk about our weight affects the way our daughters look at their bodies and how our sons look at women.
• We don’t get that when we gossip in ear-shot, our kids think it’s normal and acceptable.

As parents, we have an intense responsibility to be role-models for our kids.  And what we do and say deeply affects them… even when it has nothing to do with them.

Just like the kid that pooped in the pool, when we are careless with our words and our actions – our kids are affected.

Let’s remember that we have little ears and eyes tuning in.

Look, parenting isn’t for sissy’s.  There is so much to do and so much to remember knowing that even when you watch your P’s and Q’s, you’re still messing them up.

But if we stand strong trying to do what God instructs us to do, we will bless our kids.

“The Godly walk with integrity; blessed are their children who follow them.”  (Proverbs 20:7)

Free yourself from the expectation that you’ll be a perfect and blameless parent because we are incapable of it.  But we can walk with integrity.

I’m lacing up my sneakers.

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