30. Why Parenting is JUST Like Learning How to Draw

This episode is all about the most important skill you can develop as a parent: seeing correctly.In a book I read recently, I learned that the difference between a good artist and a not-so-good one is not a lack of skill or talent. It's a fundamental difference in the way the two artists see.The same is true in parenting.If you can see your children accurately, you don't really need to worry about anything else. You will naturally say and do all the right things.And if you don't see correctly, nothing you do can really be right, even if it appears to "work" some of the time.I'll give you practical tools on how to SEE by outlining how the five basic perception skills in drawing are excellent parallels for the perceptions skills we need to thrive as parents.Drawing Skills:Perceiving edgesPerceiving negative spacePerceiving relationshipsPerceiving lights and shadowsPerceiving the wholeDrawing Skills:Perceiving what's in your control (and what's not)Perceiving who YOU want to be as a parentPerceiving the true nature of relationshipsPerceiving the child's perspective beneath behaviorPerceiving the whole child, including eternal identity and potentialResources mentioned:Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty EdwardsScripture references:Matthew 6:22–23Matthew 7:17–18Matthew 23:25–26Matthew 7:21–23