How to question yourself

Questioning ourselves is something that is so easy to come to, as mothers. Did we choose the right school/homeschool curriculum? Did we choose the right piano teacher? Are we working enough on manners? Do they know enough about…? Am I doing the right thing for discipline/behaviour? Do I listen to my children enough? Do I spend enough quality time with them? Do I love them well enough? Am I making the right food? Am I feeding them too much sugar/wheat/whatever???

Wow, isn’t it exhausting? Sometimes we can get in what I refer to as a mental rut. Jennifer Read-Hawthorne, in her article Change your Thoughts, Change your World says;

We humans, it seems, have anywhere from 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. But according to some research, as many as 98 percent of them are exactly the same as we had the day before. Talk about creatures of habit! Even more significant, 80 percent of our thoughts are negative.

I would hazard a bet that a lot of those negative thoughts would be questioning or doubting oneself. Now don’t get me wrong, questioning the way we are doing things or what we are prioritising is a valuable and important thing, if not overdone. We can only do better if we know better and work at changing what we realise needs changing.

But as I shared in one of my previous posts, the Lord knows we are only dust, that we are only human and He doesn’t demand perfection, in every area, right now. He will lead us and guide us as we submit our lives to Him.

 So I have a new take on questioning myself. I have given myself one time in the day where I permit myself questioning. It’s a time when I can be quiet, a time where I can more proactively direct my thoughts and refuse condemning thoughts because I am not distracted by other things and just unconsciously following negative thought patterns. I lift up my way to God and I let Him point out what He wants to teach me and change in my thoughts or my life.
I have found that as I do this, my day and my mind become more peaceful, which inevitably makes me a better parent! I make small changes that stick, which is much more effective than trying to make a million changes at once and not being able to keep any of them going for more than a week.


Do you question yourself too much and could you benefit from something like this? Let me know!

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