Most jobs are linear.  School is linear with cyclical interactions.  Some jobs, like filming a movie, are pulse.  While each parent and child has a way God wired him or her to respond to time, each of us must interact in all the different modes of time.  It is helpful to recognize the time response God has imprinted in our spirits as well as our children’s, and to make adjustments when necessary.

Linear people need to remember that everyone else may not function as optimally on a set schedule as they do.  And, sometimes, they will have to shift into high gear to accomplish a pulse project.  Cyclical people will have to embrace some linear schedules in their lives.  An example of maximizing the cycles of the day in teaching is tying shoes!  For instance, when attempting to teach your child how to tie his or her shoes in the afternoon, you may both end the session frustrated.  Don’t view such things as failures.  Try again at a different time.  Maybe your child learns better in the morning.  Experiment, be flexible, and make adjustments until you discover how you and your children are wired and what works best in your family!

There is a time for war and a time for peace.  Both cannot be accomplished at the same time.  Nehemiah pushed the people—and some undoubtedly functioned as linear and cyclical in relation to time—into a pulse creative cycle to rebuild Jerusalem’s war-torn wall in 52 days.  When it was finished, he led the people to stop, to rest, to eat, to savor and to celebrate their progress.  The linear and cyclical people experienced a stretch to complete such a large job on such a tight schedule.  The pulse people needed to celebrate and to transition back into normal life in order to prevent burn-out.  Nehemiah successfully mentored an entire community of people to function at a higher level of intensity.  Then, he transitioned the people out of the crisis, through celebration, back into the normal flow of life.  Nehemiah was a leader extraordinaire.

Pulse-spirited children especially need guidance from their parents to moderate the intensity of their creative bursts.  Parents can help them learn to quit and to return to the project after they take a break, eat, and sleep.  When parents “legitimize” this God-given need to take care physically, even during a pulse creative burst, it will release the children from the load of intensity they carry and equip them to shift from spirit-based activity to proper care for their physical bodies.  Do not assume they will learn this without instruction.  They will not.  These children live at such an internal intensity during these pulse times that without their parents’ training them to operate in boundaries and self-control during the pulses and to stabilize after the pulses, they will burn-out, suffer depression, or even end their lives prematurely through addictions, suicide, or sickness induced from lack of proper physical care.  Also, parents need to help the pulse child transition from the completion of a big creative project by celebrating its completion, by resting afterwards, by stabilizing to a more linear schedule, then by looking ahead in anticipation to the next “pulse” God will send.  These steps are keys to preventing a child from dissolving into a time of purposelessness which leads to depression.

If your children’s spirits are pulse-based in relation to time, ask God for wisdom in how to train them to use constraints in their physical life without squelching their creative flow.  Parents need to recognize these pulse times and to help transition their children back to linear life without their sinking into depression.

Stay tuned in to your children, experiment, be flexible, and learn together what works best in your family!

(excerpt from “Spirit Components: Recognizing & Nurturing” in Perfect Peace by Crystal Wade, 2010)