Parent and management

Time just passes very fast when doing the things we love.... this past week Hubby & I took leave to hang out with our baby, in the absence of my parents. Though we did not plan any family trips in the end, I was still looking forward to doing our nuclear family things....mundane things like swishing around in the pool with baby, roaming shopping centres with baby, trying out eateries with baby.

We managed to cover many to-dos. On our first visit to the zoo in more than 20 years, I eagerly signed us up as members, believing that we will (will we?) be visiting the animals frequently with Ian and cover every show, every feed time, every walk they have to offer. We also tried picnic at Botanic Gardens for half an hour - during which Ian hopped, lunged, shrieked throughout his dinner feed - before Glenn hastily packed us up for home. All 3 of us were tired, sweaty, damp with drizzle, saliva and porridge bits. But tremendously content and looking forward to the next picnic.

I do wonder if perhaps Ian is just at the cute stage now and we have not reached the terror toddler times. And then I remember when I was baby-less, I was also put off by the commitment of having to feed and soothe and care for a baby, and look how different it is actually walking the journey.

It took awhile for me to realise that actually God had already wired in me the things that would make me love parenting, particularly my Input and Learner strengths. Parenting is parallel to management in many ways. Both are unpredictable and requires mental and emotional investment. Often the results you want are not achieved by bulldozing but by flowing through each twist and turn. It calls for creativity to figure out different ways to one goal, patience to sit tight and wait for right timing, courage to go ahead even when the ahead seems challenging, and humility to accept that what you think is not always right, or how it will turn out.

For me, parenting and management require regular doses of God's wisdom and anointing. After > 2 years of personally struggling to be a manager, I recently had a personal revelation that God didn't set me out on this journey of management with a fully equipped toolbox. He didn't (like what I initially thought) zap into me everything I need to be great in my job when I started out, I just had to go back to the toolbox to find the right stuff. Instead, God set me out with barely anything packed. I was to just trust Him that He will be there when I need Him and go forth! If I meet a poisionous snake there (and I have, figuratively speaking), He will dispense something for it. If I run out of water, He will squeeze water even from a rock for me. That is God's way, so I wont have to carry so much baggage the entire journey, and also learn to trust Him for e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.

I tried this method at work in managing my team, and the results were so much more fulfilling both tangibly in our numbers and intangibly in our relationships. Like they say, a minute of God's favour is worth many hours of labour. In a way, I know God is working through my team to prepare me for parenting and whatever lies ahead.

If this is how God does it, there's nothing for me to do really, except to just flow with and lean on Abba. That is probably why I feel blessed and fulfilled and loving each day I have being Ian's mummy.