Let's take a moment to appreciate the simple joy of watching a kite dance in the sky. There's something magical about it, right? It's like a metaphor for life itself – a delicate balance between control and letting go.
We'll share personal stories like our son's leap into independence, his challenges grasping the strings without guidance, and the triumph of his eventual success. It's a narrative that mirrors our own struggles as we explore the lessons hidden in the simple moments.
We'll chat about everyday leadership and parenting, finding that sweet spot between holding on tight and letting our kids soar. And oh, let's not forget about that one time our kite decided to take off on its own adventure! Through that experience, we learned the power of acceptance and finding peace in things beyond our control.
So, grab a cup of coffee and join us as we unravel these stories. Let's embark on this journey together, spreading the joy and wisdom one kite tale at a time.
Episode Highlights:
Be humble enough to learn from others.
Sometimes you have to let go of (some) control.
Making lemonade out of lemons.
Getting back up and learning from your mistakes.
Leading our kids by example.
Links Mentioned in Episode/Find More on A Force to Be Reckoned With:
Let's take a moment to appreciate the simple joy of watching a kite dance in the sky. There's something magical about it, right? It's like a metaphor for life itself – a delicate balance between control and letting go.
We'll share personal stories like our son's leap into independence, his challenges grasping the strings without guidance, and the triumph of his eventual success. It's a narrative that mirrors our own struggles as we explore the lessons hidden in the simple moments.
We'll chat about everyday leadership and parenting, finding that sweet spot between holding on tight and letting our kids soar. And oh, let's not forget about that one time our kite decided to take off on its own adventure! Through that experience, we learned the power of acceptance and finding peace in things beyond our control.
So, grab a cup of coffee and join us as we unravel these stories. Let's embark on this journey together, spreading the joy and wisdom one kite tale at a time.
Episode Highlights:
Be humble enough to learn from others.
Sometimes you have to let go of (some) control.
Making lemonade out of lemons.
Getting back up and learning from your mistakes.
Leading our kids by example.
Links Mentioned in Episode/Find More on A Force to Be Reckoned With:
We are at war and it's not against our neighbors, spouses, children, politicians or whatever else we feel like we're battling against.
Speaker 2:
So the questions are who's the fight against, and are we winning or losing? We're the Adkins, and we are a force to be reckoned with.
Speaker 1:
Are you ready to join?
Speaker 2:
the force. Happy tuesday everybody, and we want to say thank you for choosing us. No, yeah, that's what we're sticking with.
Speaker 1:
That is not allowed.
Speaker 2:
That's what we're sticking with. That is not allowed.
Speaker 1:
And you make fun of me for dad jokes.
Speaker 2:
Okay, wow.
Speaker 1:
Hey guys.
Speaker 2:
We hope you're doing great.
Speaker 1:
Just so you know that was trash, no cap.
Speaker 2:
Okay, well, trash, you are Trash.
Speaker 1:
I don't know any of the slang, so I'm busting, okay. So what are we calling this episode?
Speaker 2:
we're calling it the parable of the kite and if, uh, if lisa's listening to this, she's rolling her eyes right now letha wait a minute?
Speaker 1:
why?
Speaker 2:
because she doesn't like when we play that sound no, because you told her you were going to turn this into a podcast episode and I was like, are you serious?
Speaker 1:
why would she? She was into it. Oh remember, she was helping me come up with the storyline are you sure she didn't just feel bad for you? No, do you want to phone her? We could actually bring her in and she could be the third host on this cast.
Speaker 2:
Should I phone a friend? No, it's 10 o'clock at night.
Speaker 1:
No, you can't be doing that, okay, okay, so anyways.
Speaker 2:
Before you start, you know what's crazy. We didn't think that we had flown kites. Well, I did. I've, I've flown kites, with my thanks to Grandma Rose and Pappy Rose.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
And I love, loved flying kites when I was little but, like as an adult, I didn't think I had until my Google memories popped up this morning. And on April 1st how many years ago was that?
Speaker 1:
It was April 1stst actually, or is this a joke?
Speaker 2:
no, actually april 1st 2018 you flew, we're on the ocean flying kites with carter that's crazy and he's gonna be so excited to know this.
Speaker 1:
He doesn't because he doesn't remember and he didn't think that he had ever flown a kite before Anyway. So, yeah, all right. So we were on vacation and you bought kites, right, and Carter wanted to fly a kite. He's almost 12 years old, he's, you know, mr.
Speaker 2:
Independent Mr.
Speaker 1:
Independent, very competitive, and he wanted to get this kite up and he wanted to get it.
Speaker 2:
Get the kite up on his own, and you know so he was over playing with the kids and I was over flying a kite and mine was up really high in the air and so that enticed him and he came over with another kite, right, I was trying to get in there and, to be honest with you, don't let this get to your head.
Speaker 2:
But you made it look easy well to get the kite up that's because if you know how to fly a kite, it's relatively easy to get it in the air in the right conditions. If you don't which he didn't, it's very hard, and but you just have to know a couple little tweaks here and there, yeah, to get it up.
Speaker 1:
And he didn't know them right and he just wanted to figure this thing out on his own right, which to some level I can respect. That. You know he didn't want a bunch of help, he just wanted to figure this thing out on his own Right, which to some level I can respect. That you know he didn't want a bunch of help, he just wanted to. You know, do it.
Speaker 2:
But also, if he would have taken that advice, it would have happened a lot quicker.
Speaker 1:
So actually let's just stop right there. There's a little lesson in that beating their head against the wall, trying to do something that they've never done before, where if you would just reach out to somebody that has already done it, or read a book or listen to a podcast and get a few pointers, it could go a long way to make things a lot smoother and easier for you.
Speaker 2:
Why reinvent the wheel if somebody's already flown a kite, like, learn from people who know what they're doing and save yourself the time right? Same thing with like there are people who've gone ahead of you and learned things. And the other thing is, when it comes to kite flying, what he was doing wrong is he was getting it up to a certain point and you have that whole line of rope that he wasn't releasing and I kept telling him no, you need to release more, or you need to release more, but because of like the wind, he was feeling like and a lot of people like do, who have never flown kites for it like you're feeling, like you need to control it, when really, if, you just release it, it will just take off and you and then, like you, have to pull it a little bit and then release, and pull it a little bit and release, and he was just holding on and it kept nose diving yeah, and I think the my immediate thought there.
Speaker 1:
the lesson there is that there's a lot of times, especially if somebody's in a position of leadership or running a business, where they don't want to let go of certain tasks so they don't want to let their training. They're bringing somebody in to maybe help but they don't want to completely let go and delegate and they don't release the control and let them. And you know, sometimes they may crash and sometimes they may take off, but you're never going to know if they're going to flourish if you don't let go a little bit. Yeah, so, anyway, so, yeah, so he failing at this, this kite, to the point where you know it has been 30 plus minutes or so of him trying to get this kite up, it wasn't happening and he threw a fit right and stormed off into the end of the house and I was like you're grounded.
Speaker 2:
That's it. You're grounded because it had.
Speaker 1:
Because not that?
Speaker 2:
he was failing at the kite, but that his attitude sucked. And the lesson in that is no, I'm just kidding, we don't have to have a lesson for everything.
Speaker 1:
And then so yeah, so that happened. And then he came back and what did he tell you? He?
Speaker 2:
was like how about this, how about this? If I can get this kite in the air, then I'm not grounded anymore. And I was like okay, whatever, if you can get the kite in the air and you can have a good attitude about it, then you won't be grounded.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and the funny thing about that is is sometimes if you get your back against the wall, the lesson in that is Seriously, though. Sometimes you get your back against the wall. Sometimes you can negotiate your way out of it. And I mean really, he was grounded from his phone and from video games, and so that little incentive, right there got him figuring it out pretty quick so then, so he keeps work, he keeps working and he gets this, this shark kite, up in the air right.
Speaker 2:
And then our sweet little three-year-old, my mom I'm so excited get my, I get my, I Get Maya. Get Maya I want her to fly the kite. I want her to fly the kite, and he did.
Speaker 1:
And he did, and he handed her the kite and handed her the kite completely.
Speaker 2:
And the lesson is that if you're going to delegate, don't completely release everything. He handed everything over.
Speaker 1:
Everything over to her, Everything that he had worked for. He handed her the keys to the kingdom.
Speaker 2:
I explained to him. I was like no, when you're letting kids fly, you give them the plastic piece. Yeah, and then you hold on to the string and then you hold on to the string so that if they let go you still have the string and also they think they're controlling.
Speaker 2:
controlling it, but you're actually controlling it and my let go and I'm carter's, far back on the off the shore flying it, and I'm toward the like shoreline and I just see him bolting toward me and I look a little bit ahead and I see the kite flying too and I'm holding the baby, our friend's baby, and I'm like I run over to it and I take a dive and I missed it by probably six inches yeah, I and I was standing right beside them because I was holding maya's food.
Speaker 1:
so I had maya's food in my hands and it starts going and I'm like I like I can't just throw maya's food in the sand, and so I'm like I'm maya's just standing and I'm like I can't just throw Maya's food in the sand, and so I'm like Maya's just standing there watching.
Speaker 2:
I'm like Maya take your food, take your food, take your food.
Speaker 1:
And so by the time she took her food and I started running, it was too late. And then JJ tried to run for it too, and it was gone, and then Carter really threw a fit.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, poor guy, though he ran so fast were a fit yeah, he poor guy though he ran so fast he ran into the water after the thing. Oh, I felt so bad. But then he, he, he went back up to the house that time and the kite took off and we're jj and I were just standing there. We're like, oh crap. Well then we're just watching it and it was like, well, there's nothing we can do. And it's like this is kind of cool, or let's see how far this kite's gonna go.
Speaker 1:
That kite did not crash like we never saw it crash it got so far, to the point where you could almost not see it and then it got to the point where we still. We got to the point where we couldn't see it. We never saw it hit like. We watched it all the way through and unfortunately carter missed that and because he stormed back off to the house like you guys, made lemonade out of lemons, because you enjoyed the view yeah and so yeah.
Speaker 1:
So there it was like, all right, this happened, there's nothing we can do about it now, it's completely out of our control, let's just watch it and see what happens. And then it was like it turned into a cool thing and everything. So then, uh, carter came back eventually, came back down, readjusted his attitude and got another kite and started working on it and the the thing I thought of there as I was just thinking through this story and like the lessons to take from it, was okay, he worked hard on this opportunity, the opera, this opportunity failed. It's gone. That opportunity is gone. Does that mean that that's the end of it, that you're just done and it's over?
Speaker 1:
No there's another opportunity, there is another kite. Get back on the horse, keep pushing forward and work hard at the next thing. Right, that's gone, that's out of your control, there's nothing you can do. So he worked hard and he got the next kite up and he got it up really high and he kept working it and then he worked on. He got that kite, he tied it off, he started working on another one and he got it and he got that one up and he started working on it and then for the rest of the trip he was Mr Kite. Anytime any of the kids wanted to get a kite up, he's like hey, go talk to Carter, carter will help you get the kite up. And then Andy had bought these other kites that the strings were at least twice maybe even three times as long as the other ones and they were harder.
Speaker 1:
And there was actually one of those kites uh, some of the like other adults were trying to get it up and nobody could get the kite up. Carter got it up and it had a really long string and he got it up and that baby was flying. He had him tied off. He's getting multiple ones going and when anybody wanted a kite he would get it up and he was letting him hold it and he became mr kite became the expert and so like with with all of this, like carter, the learned that one.
Speaker 1:
You know you need to don't quit, don't give up, keep pushing forward. You know he was able to learn an attitude adjustment there. It was an opportunity to learn about it, having just maintaining a good, positive attitude, taking advice at the beginning, especially when you're just getting started and trying to learn. Started and trying to learn and then you know, if your kite flies off into the ocean, your opportunity is gone. Just get back up and take do the next thing. There's another kite, there's always another kite right. And then the next thing you know, if you stick with it long enough, you're persistent enough, you can start to learn to help others to get their kites up too love it how was that?
Speaker 2:
lisa the parable the kite our kids just teach us something every day they really do.
Speaker 1:
It is funny when you think about it. Yeah, I think, like a lot of times with kids and and the things that they're going through and the lessons they're learning, they're so much more simple and it's easier sometimes to extract the lesson. What do you mean? Like remember when we did the whole lemonade stand? Remember when we talked about the lesson on the lemonade stand? Like it was just such, it's such a simple thing that's taking place. It's easier to extract the lesson sometimes out of them when it's like an adult situation. Sometimes just there's lots of layers and it's a lot more complicated, but it's almost like we're watching, like children's books, except god's probably looking down at us and like you, idiot, this is so simple this is like a lesson already.
Speaker 2:
How many things I have to torture you with how many kites?
Speaker 1:
are you gonna let go out into the ocean, cory, before you finally get it? It's so simple yeah, he's watching like what you're just gonna storm off into the house now no, I, yeah, I mean seriously.
Speaker 2:
Our kids do teach us something every day and the thing thing is, I don't know just like, even with the kite example, that's something I love about parenting. It's a love-hate thing because, honestly, I don't want to deal with my kids' attitude and I just want to like send good human and somebody who perseveres the excessive screen time and the lack of intentionality. It really just does our kids such a disservice because as we were planning on going on this vacation, our friends were like kept saying, oh, come on, come on, you got to come.
Speaker 2:
It's an investment in your family and while that is true and it could also be a really good sales pitch, and also an excuse to be, like, financially irresponsible, it is true, like having moments of quality time, it is an investment in your kids and it's an investment with your family. So, and something as simple as kite flying, you know.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, you might not have learned the lesson that time, but we were going to take multiple times and then and he's going to hear this and he's going to be reminded, and the big thing, to his credit, is that he persisted and we didn't make him keep going back to that kite. Yeah, he chose to and he, he persisted. And then if he wouldn't have persisted, we wouldn't have had this story to tell.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and also, like now, next time when he tries to figure something else out maybe he's trying to learn how to drive, ride a skateboard and do some type of trick we can point him back to the kite story, like remember how frustrating that was and how you worked and worked and worked and you overcame that. Yeah, and you can do it again, and then it might take the skateboard story, but then it might be like a job that he wants to get.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, you know, it's just really cool there's pretty much nothing in life that just being persistent trying to learn as you make mistakes and just working hard. Yeah, that you can't become at least competent in.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, fluent.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, if not an expert, just depends on the amount of time and effort and willingness to learn that you put in.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, the last thing I want to say about it is just like it sounds so dumb. Maybe to some people like, okay, really You're going to pull a lesson out of that dumb. Maybe to some people like, okay, really you're gonna pull a lesson out of that. But, like, our kids learn so much more through living life alongside us and with us and in and spending quality time with us than they would ever learn in a classroom, and so I think sometimes we put this pressure on ourselves, like I need to sit down and I need to like, uh, go over this thing and teach my kid this thing and walk them through how to do this, and sit down and like read the Bible to them and, you know, teach them these financial principles, and like all of that. Yeah, there is time and space for that, and that is true. But more than anything, like they're going to learn through life, through how we walk with God and how we respond in hardships and how we persevere and like through us, exposing them to things that are hard.
Speaker 1:
But I think so many love life lessons stick more when you're in the midst of something and as parents, we just take the time to help them. Um, maybe shift their perspective and see the lesson in what is they're currently experiencing or going through. Yeah, you know, like we can teach financial lessons when they're wanting to buy something, they're at the store and they don't have enough money for something or whatever.
Speaker 1:
Like there's so many just lessons through real life when, if you just pause for a minute and point it out, that this is a lesson and here's what you can learn from it and here maybe try this or whatever, like it's going to stick more a lot of times than just sitting down in some type of structured and environment yeah, I, I agree completely, and that can go for everyday life, like buying things, checking out.
Speaker 2:
This is a debit card. This is how a debit card works answering their questions in the car, successes and failures and being like I screwed up today yeah, and for anybody that would think that that was stupid, that we put a lesson out of that.
Speaker 1:
Like the funny thing is is I wasn't saying it was stupid, I know, but like I was just gonna say that, as it was happening, and like right after it happened, I was just thinking about it and like it was like I was thinking of the lesson for myself, even you know what I mean. It was like, wow, man, look at the lesson that carter just learned, or that Carter just went through. Like this is pretty cool, you know. So, anyways, got anything else you want to add to this? No I think that's it.
Speaker 2:
We hope that you guys enjoyed the Parable of the Kites. We expect to see it in textbooks, in classrooms, on posters, on screensavers and on your social media reels. We'll catch you next week.