Equipping young women professionals with young families to find fulfillment, contentment and joy as mothers and home makers without losing sight of who they are as women.

Volume 13, Issue 15: True To Yourself

I liken living in a family to living in a community, even if your home life includes just one or two or three other people. You may be the clean and organized type, or the getting things done and thoughtful type in your family. It's unrealistic to expect your family members to be just like you.

Expecting your community to mirror your living habits is setting yourself up for disappointment. I reckon the best you should do is communicate your expectations as clearly as possible then leave it up to your community to choose to live up to them or not.

Regardless of how they choose to carry themselves, you have only yourself to live up to your standards. Purpose to do your best even when your community chooses to just get by without much thought to being considerate with shared spaces and responsibilities.

More importantly, keep a check on your attitude. Be careful to not focus on your community's "deficiencies" and be upset by them. Happily maintain the space as you like it and enjoy your life. After all, some straightening up or cleaning up after someone takes just a few seconds or minutes. It's not worth rearranging your disposition.

The same attitude applies to how we respond to people's behavior. I like how James Clear put it in a recent post. "I can't control the other person's behavior, but I can control my response. Their actions may be rude or unacceptable, but I still want my response to be measured and thoughtful. Even if they aren't doing what is right, I still want to make sure I'm doing what is right."

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi