In this video, I'm going to share with you why I chose the name Marble Jar for my YouTube channel and blog.

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**** A transcript follows. More transcripts can be found at marblejar.net. ****

If you've seen my channel trailer, you'll know that my primary interest is in parenting in a world of constant internet access and using technology to help. But I also have a bunch of other curiosities and wanted to create a blog or channel that wasn't super limited and also reflected some things that I felt were important.

I decided to name my blog Marble Jar and today I'm going to share the 4 reasons I picked that name.

Visual - The first and most obvious reason is that it is super visual. In other words, when I say Marble Jar, it is almost impossible for you to not generate an image of jar of colorful marbles in your mind. That visualization makes it easy to remember and, because marbles are usually multicolored, it's a fun, vibrant image to carry around in your head. Plus it's really easy to spell for those of us who are spelling challenged.

Behavior Modification - The second reason is that marble jars are used to change behavior. More specifically, to reward good behavior. If you look up Marble Jar on the Internet, most of sites that come up reference marble jars being used in classrooms or in families as a behavior modification tool. You do something good, the teacher or parent puts a marble in the jar. You do something not so good, a marble comes out. When the level of marbles reaches a certain point, there is generally a reward -- a pizza party or popsicles for the classroom or a special movie outing. We used to have one for my kids to earn sleepovers. I'm big on using systems to change behavior (both for kids and adults), so I find the Marble Jar reward system really appealing.

Trust - The third reason is that a Marble Jar is Brene Brown's metaphor for trustworthy friends. Brene Brown, if you don't already know her, is a scholar and an author and shame researcher. And if you are NOT familiar with her, immediately stop this video and go watch her TED Talk on Vulnerability. It's required listening for life. She tells this story about her daughter who shared an embarrassing story at school with some girls whom she thought she could trust. Those girls blabbed her story to the whole class and she felt ashamed and laughed at. She wondered how she could trust anyone again. Brene Brown told her daughter that friends are like marble jars. You fill up the jar one marble at a time with good deads, acts of friendship, and real listening. Sometimes people will shock or betray you and will spill all of their marbles out on the ground. But generally speaking, if a friend has built up your trust, one marble at a time, and that jar is nearly full -- you can consider that person a trustworthy friend -- a "marble jar" friend.

Priorities - The fourth and last reason is another analogy. You may have already heard this story -- it is about priorities. It isn't specifically about marbles, but it's pretty close. If you take a large jar and fill it with stones it looks full, right? But you can pour in some pepples and shake the jar until they go into all of the crevices. Now it appears full. But wait, you can pour sand in and shake and surely it is full now! Not quite -- you can still pour water in. The lesson from this is that you have to put the larger stones in first (or the marbles) or else you will never fit them in later. So what are the large marbles in your life? Family, friends, health, doing what you love? Fighting for something? Make room for those things first -- otherwise the less important things -- the sand and water -- will take up all of the room.

So, those were the 4 reasons that I like the name Marble Jar: it's bright and visual, it's a behavior change tool, and it's an metaphor for both trustworthy friends and the things that matter most. It was hard to beat.

Leave your questions, experiences, and thoughts in the comments section and thanks for watching!

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