Relationships are important because they offer support and encouragement. They keep me accountable. They make me a better person by giving me the opportunity to love and be loved. Making relationships work requires commitment, give and take, sharing of time and space, unconditional love, and forgiveness. God refines me through my relationships.The relationship with my husband, Ken, is my most significant relationship at this time in my life. We share life's ups and downs. He is a good listener when I need him to be and offers honest opinions. He is my biggest support system for this Walden journey. He travels for a living so our relationship depends heavily on daily phone calls so we can keep up with each other's lives. Communication is key to keeping close. Laughter is important, too!
My dog, Abby, is my constant companion and is great company when my husband is gone. She is earning her Master's degree along with me! Much of the time she is sitting on my lap as I work on Walden homework at the computer. She gives me unconditional love and I recipricate.
I am blessed to have many friends; but, I have two or three that I can share concerns and struggles with and know they will give sound advice, pray for me, and love me, and I do the same for them. We do not see each other on a regular basis, so we make a point of getting together for lunch every so often which is hard to do with busy schedules. We keep up with each other's lives by e mailing. Again, communication is what keeps the relationships going.
I think commitment, acceptance, forgiveness, and unselfishness are important to maintaining lasting relationships. All of those are hard to do at times; but, the security good relationships bring where you can be yourself, be supported, and be heard is worth the effort.
One of my favorite Bible verses is "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry..." (James 1:19). That advice has served me well with personal relationships and certainly does as an early childhood professional. Listening to families as well as to children shows them you value them. I also have found that relationships are built on trust. When information is shared in confidence, it remains confidential. Just as I pray for my family and friends, I pray for my preschool families if they have shared a need with me. It is a way of letting them know you care about what is going on their life.
Suzanne:
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed very much reading your posting. I agree with you in regards of communication being the most important thing to keep long lasting relationships. Fortunately there is so many ways of communication these days that there is not excuse not to communicate. My relationship with my husband is proof of that...when we first met he was living in Peru, and I was in USA. For 2 1/2 years, we communicated thru email, phone and messengers. There was no one day that we did not communicate. Our relationship only grew because of the constant communication that we have committed. When we got married 5 years ago we promised we were going to continue communicating as were used to, and we continue to do it every day.
I think you're absolutely right! Trust and communication are key for any relationships. Listening to families is an important thing to do, even if they're upset. Sometimes just letting them express their frustrations makes it easier to get through to them after they've calmed down. I like that you included confidentiality in your reflection. We want families to be able to trust us and trust and confidentiality really go hand and hand.
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