Going to Lowe’s! Ha!
Those who have been or are currently on Sabbatical, will tell you that your idea of what your Sabbatical will be and what your Sabbatical ends up to be can be quite different!
My Sabbatical has been no exception! I really thought it would be all about resting and reflecting. Something quite amazing and surprising has happened. But first, here’s some background: My youngest son Brendan is living with us while attending Cisco College this winter. A year+ ago, when he went off to Hardin Simmons, he just wasn’t quite ready. When he hit a few bumps in the road, he wanted to try a different path. He asked us to stand with him as he tried to become a professional video gamer. He moved back home. and worked diligently for several months trying to pursue that path. He then came face to face with reality: being in the top 1% of anything is really hard!
During his gaming stint, he was playing 12+hours per day. Most of those hours were in the evening and at night. With my work schedule, we rarely got a chance to connect. During my Sabbatical, this has all changed. I’ve spent more quality time with Brendan this month than I have in the previous few years! It took me a long time to figure out how to really connect with him. Brendan loves to work with his hands. He loves to build and fix. He loves to talk politics. And he is now learning to stay in shape physically. But he really loves to work with his hands.
So during Sabbatical, we’ve done the following together:
- Changed the oil and filter in his car (He asked me to teach him how. He did all the work.)
- Worked on the swing set service project over a few days
- Finished painting our fence
- Played basketball at Beltway in the mornings
- Discussed his progress in school and his plans for next year
- Ventured together with my wife on a new low sugar diet plan
- Drove to Dallas to pick up a new free weight set
- And today, we’re going to build a squat rack/lifting station together. (Yes. This means a trip to Lowe’s!)
It’s been amazing watching his confidence grow as he learns new skills and realizes what he’s good at. It’s priceless to watch genuine internal pride show in the eyes of a son when a father says, “You do this. You got this.” while building something.
Coincidentally, on the treadmill on Sunday I was listening to the Success Magazine podcast. The lady being interviewed was talking about how to interrupt cycles of self doubt and anxiety and replace these with self confidence. She said having strong self confidence is not a personality attribute; it’s a skill, a habit of thinking, that is learned by DOING things successfully. It’s not something that is generated by thoughts or our mindset. It’s something that’s generated by our ACTIONS. Watching Brendan grow and become a self confident young man this year testifies to wisdom of her teachings.
In my devotional today, I read Peter’s words to the early church. He wrote: “you, also like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.” — a fitting scripture to sign off with this morning, don’t you agree?