Let Us Not Become Weary

I sit here listening to my son scream his lungs out. He was given the task of picking up his playroom. That was 2 hours ago. It should have taken 5 minutes. This is where I would like to scream. This is the hard part of parenting. I know God wants me to teach my children how to be independent, responsible, indivduals. It would be a lot easier for me to give in and help him or do it myself. But then Tucker would lose the life lesson that when he is given a task he has to complete it. Another aspect of this is a power struggle. Who is going to give in first? Unfortunately, Tucker and I both have the same personality which is incredibly stubborn and we both think we are always right. So you can see this is probably not going to resolve itself very soon. All I can do is pray over my son that he will calm down and stand my ground. I found a verse earlier this week that has been the only thing getting me through this difficult week of disciplining. Galatians 6:9, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." When I get to the end of the 18 years I have to teach this little person how to become a God fearing man, I want to look back with as few regrets as possible. I want to feel like I did everything in my power to show him what he needs to know. So that is my motivation. If anyone else is having a similar day, I will be praying for you. It will get better, God promises us this.

Revelations

Every morning I wake up and pray that the day will go smoothly, my childrens attitudes will be pleasant and I will be patient. Somedays go better then others. Every night I go over what went wrong, what I could have done differently, and pray to do better the next day. From so many thoughts and prayers come some revelations. Please bear with me, I hope they make as much sense written as they do in my head :-)
When my children are being disobedient, I have many options on what I can do or say. I can yell, I can ignore, I can become annoyed, or I can correct them calmly. No matter what response I choose I am using words and/or body language to respond. My first instinct is to yell. My more thought out response is to correct calmly. But either way, I am using words. So if I am using words either way, using the same energy, using the same breaths, the same thought process and brain response to use my mouth, why would I choose anything other than a calm response? Sometimes the simplest things almost seem to simple, but not always easy.
There are two important reasons why this makes the most sense. First, when you respond to your child calmly you are setting the tone for the conversation. You are more likely to get your point across and get the desired response if you are calm, therefore making your child calm (well, at least hopefully.) Secondly, and more importantly, you are communicating to your child that they are important to you, that you respect them, and that they are loved. Thirdly (is that a word?), and most important of all, you are showing your child how a loving parent communicates, modeling the love of our Heavenly Father. We are the most important and sometimes the only representation of Christ to our children and we want them to know what a loving, patient, caring Father God is.
So, for me when I can think things out logically it helps me to make the right choice. Of course patience plays a huge role in choosing the right response. So one of my verses for the day is a repeat from a previous post, but is worth repeating. Proverbs 15:1 "A gentle answer will calm a person’s anger,but an unkind answer will cause more anger." And a new one, also from Proverbs. Proverbs 25:15 "With patience you can convince a ruler,and a gentle word can get through to the hard-headed." I hope this post makes sense to someone else besides me, and I hope that seeing the thoughts logically helped someone else, also besides me. Have a blessed day :-)