“Who You are shows up in Your Business.”
– Sandi Krakowski
Yesterday I spent the day with my children. How incredible!
For weeks I’d been working incessantly on our show Dream BIG. Just about everything I did (all day) was directed at the project.
This week my kids were extra cranky- I knew all the while it was because I wasn’t spending enough time with them.
I found myself giving an excuse that’s concerned and irked me often about career or business driven parents: “I’m doing all this now so my babies can have a more secure future…”
Can you imagine my disgust when I realised I was thinking these very words!
I don’t know when working so hard took centre stage. It’d happened gradually- and then before I knew it the work had consumed me. Great, meaningful work- and yet definitely NOT the most important aspect of my life!
I love serving. I do it every day for Dream BIG– and yet while I was serving others- I was neglecting the people I’m most responsible to- my family.
So yesterday I stepped out of my office and into my children’s world. A world I want to be part of every day- that’s the world that really matters.
It was this quote that yanked me out of the state of working in over-drive and neglecting my kids:
I thought of the many times my little boy had come to speak with me and I’d irritably shooed him away saying, “I’m busy!”
Or how many times my daughter had reached out to hold me- I’d pick her up, without connecting with her, and continue pouring all my attention to what was going on on my laptop instead of what was going on with my little girl.
Love is shown. Never ever does a child not need to be shown love.
Whatever love language a child speaks- they all need to be engaged with. They all need to feel seen and heard. That requires uninterrupted time with us.
There are no other people on the planet a child looks up to more than their parents. We shape their little worlds. We are the ones who make the greatest impact on their lives.
I am convinced with everything in me that God has called me to Dream BIG. Not a cell in my body doubts that. But from experience I can say we can pervert the dreams God has set before us by neglecting the primary roles He’s given us.
As a mom there is no greater calling in my life than to be a virtuous wife and highly involved mother- these are roles I can never assign to anyone else.
Yesterday ended with me tickling my son senseless. Oh how he laughed! As the music of his giggles and laughter filled my every being- I wondered how long it’d been since I’d heard that beautiful sound…
My daughter clambered on me (as is her nature). I could feel her little body loving every moment of connecting with her mom.
No job I do will ever match my calling to raise these kids.
Often I’m Wowed by people who tell me how much my work means to them- I love this because it validates what I’m doing. This week though I wondered, while I’m blessing others, who’s blessing my kids?
Children are a gift from God. No gift God gives comes laced with guilt. So my awakening this week was not from a sense of guilt- it stemmed from being reminded that I was missing out on things like my son’s laughter and my daughter’s fierce and crazy ways.
I’m not me without my babies poking their little faces into my world and urging me to explore life with them.
I’ve never admired super rich people whose family lives were in chaos- I don’t want to have impacted the lives of many people while my own children were impacted by everything else but me… That could never be success in my books.
Who we are shows up in our business.
A huge part of who I am is Mom. My “Mommy” heart is what birthed Dream BIG. God designed me as this mushy, hopeless romantic who values the beauty of family deeply. If I can’t bring that into my business then I have nothing to bring.
Hannah Viviers is Mom to two incredibly Beautiful Children. Oh… and she’s the Creator and Host of the Dream BIG TV Show.