10
Point Manifesto for Joyful Parenting
(any text in turquoise links to posts for more explanation & encouragement)::
1. Today, I will make our home a house of prayer. I will pray at set times. And I will invite our children to come move into an interior space that lives with God.
2.Today, I will transfigure all things into beauty, and I will refuse to see anything else.
3. Today, I will not have any emergencies. There are no emergencies! Only amateurs hurry.
4. Today, when stress mounts, I pray to dismount it with gratitude. My stress management plan will be intervention with verbal thanks. I can only feel one feeling at a time, and I choose to give thanks at all times. Fight feeling with feeling!
5. Today, I will pray to speak words that are only STRONG words, words that make these children feel strong. Grace words. Grace is the only non-toxic air. All other words I breathe are death words.
6. Today, I will pray to be consistently consistent. I will create safe rhythms that our children can find security in. I will create daily ceremonies because everyday we are CELEBRATING the gift of now!
7. Today, the moment when I am most repelled by a child’s behavior, that is my sign to draw the very closest to that child.
8. Today, I will hug each of my children as many times as I serve them meals — because children’s hearts feed on touch. I’ll look for as many opportunities to touch my children today as possible — the taller they are, the more so.
9. Today, my priorities will be all Things Unseen.
10. Today, I will laugh! And I will let the little children laugh! I will create a culture of JOY!
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Click here to Download a Free Printable Copy of the Manifesto of Joyful Parenting
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[…] 10 Points of Joyful Parenting – One Thousand Gifts (Ann Voskamp gifts readers of her book with this site and these downloads. I think I’ll hang this one somewhere I’ll see it often!) […]
thank you so much for this…a tremendous gift! my heart is being changed daily by this and your book. may He return to you a hundred fold all that you pour out to so many so often. Glory be to God!
Thank you. What a great reminder of the gifts before me each day. I home school four children. 11,98.7.5. Some days I feel like I am failing them daily. Then the Lord gently reminds me that this is the perfect home for my children and even in my weakness, He is strong! Thank you!!!
[…] also printed out Ann Voskamp’s Joyful Parenting Manifesto and am referring to it frequently to try to become the kind of parent that I truly long to […]
These 10 points of JOYFUL parenting are going all over my house, in my car and imprinted in my heart. They are Jesus-like rules for loving HIS children. I must pray more, hug more and open my heart more. I have, like so many Southern Californians, fallen into the culture of consumerism, television and focus on myself and MY dreams. I must ask myself, what are my dreams in a life that is to glorify Jesus, my Savior?
Thank you, Ann Voskamp, for giving me NEW eyes, fresh CLOSEUP perspective on how to live a more Jesus-focused, Joyful and ultimately Kingdom-building life.
Thank you for this printout! I received the Family Gratitude Journal as a gift but put it aside. Then months later I received the book One Thousand Gifts at my request. Now I know how to use the journal. I am worshiping the Lord through thanksgiving! I am slowing life down! I am so thankful to you for writing about thankfulness and to the Lord for showing you this concept in such detail. I have always been a thankful person but to know now how that can help me draw closer to the Lord and to be aware…it is a gift that the Lord has given through you. Thank you.
I don’t know if it is just me, but none of the links seem to be working. I was trying to read more by clicking on the turquoise text, but it says, “page got lost” on all of the several I tried.
Hi Lisa, thank you for flagging this. I am also seeing the problem. I’m on the team helping to maintain the site, and I will make sure this gets fixed. I’ll comment back here once we have it resolved.
Hi Lisa, it turned out to be an easy fix. The links are all working now. Thanks again for your comment. Blessings!