electronic parenting

it began with whispers of his future while being rocked and nursed.
it continued on with encouragement to use your words and we don't use legos for throwing.
do you have any nice asking words?
when someone gives you something, say thank you.
please make your bed at your friend's house. don't leave your towels for someone else to pick up.
leave someone's house looking nicer than when you arrived.
coaching, encouraging happened during breakfast, around the dinner table and oftentimes in the car, where we spent an inordinate amount of time traveling to a from numerous sports practices and back and forth to school.
my favorite part about our time spent in the car were the times i had to speak truth into my children's lives.
a captive audience.
little eye contact.
leaving a conversation too early might result in an e.r. visit. {it's hard to storm out of a moving vehicle. heh heh.}
now that our children are, for the most part, grown and gone, our roles as parents have not ceased. they've simply evolved… must as our parenting had evolved as they grew from toddlers to school age and then to teens.
our parenting has gone from face-to-face to electronic.
i now get picture texts to see if i approve of a new purchase. a post to my wall on facebook. but mostly, it's my phone that gets a work out.
believe it or not, texting is a great way to offer up encouraging messages. a tiny devotion. a simple thinking of you and i love you.
since it's summer, we get some face-time, but they're still out of the house more than they're in it {not including sleeping}. and when they're in it, there's usually an entourage present. so it's harder to have those moments where it's appropriate to encourage and challenge.
so i text. or call.
just this morning, i texted boy wonder to handle a sticky situation at work with honesty and integrity, even though doing so might result in disappointment. doing the right thing isn't always the easy thing… living the life that Jesus has called us to is sometimes hard. but in the end, it is ALWAYS the right way. confronting someone is scary… but if i can positively encourage him to love well and live right, hopefully he can learn to deal with uncomfortable situations with confidence and integrity. {fear can be such a crippling thing.}
so yeah. parenting in the 21st century. i'm doing my best to speak their language the way they want to speak it. i'm evolving… or at least trying to.