You can't preach it - if you don't live it

I have found out the hard way that you can't preach it - if you don't live it. Beside the fact that your children see right through it, it rings hollow. You can't preach something you don't know inside and out. You can pretend, but you are really preaching someone else's message. And that doesn't go very far.

I am not a planner. I am not good at it because I spend so much time second guessing my plan. I also spend too much time making it a perfect plan. I act - only when I am forced to act. This is not a good way to live life but it is the way I am doing it now. Maybe one day this will change in my life. But for now - my life is one of doing what I have to do right now because I am up against a deadline. I spend a lot of time fighting fires of my own making.

It is no wonder my children live life the same way for the most part. I can't do it, so I don't preach it, and as a result they don't learn it. Maybe I should have faked it. So at least they would learn something. But I don't want to be that way. I want my kids to hear something from me - and then see it lived out in me. At least that way what they learn from me is genuine.

Who knows maybe they will teach me how to plan when they learn it. Now that will be a great day.