It’s impossible for anyone to transform their ceiling into someone else’s floor without first understanding the “ceiling/floor” concept.
With six sons at home, I’m sure you can imagine the bumping and stomping that’s heard over my head. There are countless times, I’ve had to yell, “Who’s doing all that stomping and bumping over my head?” Of course, the boys would respond by blaming one another. I’m sure you can relate to my experiences by reflecting on many of your own.
In this instance I did not physically or metaphorically make my ceiling my children’s floor. I was more concerned about my peace and quiet and didn’t consider my sons were just being boys and having fun. People do not like being uncomfortable, especially not at home; where you should be afforded the privilege to relax and enjoy your peace and quiet.
Over the past few years, I have witnessed many home builders modify their plans that excluded living space over the master bedroom. Out of curiosity, I asked various builders why were these modifications made and unanimously the consensus was because many parents have complained about the noise over their heads. Today, the majority of master bedrooms have empty space over them. Parents are willing to sacrifice useful square footage in order to be comfortable. Since we are doing this consciously with our physical homes, what are we doing unconsciously with our spiritual, social, and emotional homes?
In my life’s experiences and observations parenting has always been selfish. I primarily remembered being lorded rather than lead. This type of parenting has been passed down from generations. As fathers we have to learn to be leaders and not repeat the inherited behavior of being lords.
When analyzing your physical ceiling becoming your children’s physical floor, you realize how uncomfortable and unpleasant of an experience this can become. Yes it will become uncomfortable at times, but it’s necessary to endure these frustrations for the betterment of our children. Trust me, this is a learning process. This is something that has to be strategically and intentionally done on a daily basis.
Our thoughts and our words create what we see and what we become. The same is true when it comes to our children. The thoughts that we think towards our children and the words we speak over our children will become the way that we act towards our children. Many of us know this to be true, but we fail to daily strategically and intentionally change our thoughts and our words towards our children.
Sometimes you just have to "speak those things that are not, as though they were!"