In Which I Start To Tell You About My Sister Coming Home but Digress Into A Rant About Child Training.

My sister Amy is coming home today with all of my little nieces and nephews! She lives in Missouri, and we get to see her twice a year. Once at Christmas, and each summer for a month! Four sisters reunited after long times of not visiting together= too much fun!

Sooo looking forward to seeing her today!! We’ll let all of the grandchildren swim in my mother’s pool while we sit and catch up  (with our iced coffees in hand)  on every topic under the sun including hair styles, makeup, schooling, ministry, child raising, crafting, decorating, etc…Can’t wait!

Also, this weekend we have my daughter, Rebekah’s graduation party! I am amazed that my first little babe has graduated and is preparing daily to go to college! Can I brag on my own kid, or is that not in good taste? lol

Rebekah is a huge blessing to me. She has a sensitive heart toward God’s word and law and has really been a joy to raise. Mind you, it wasn’t always that way. When she was two and  three, I seriously thought that she was going to be the death of me! This house was like a war zone.  I had no clue what I was doing as far as child training was concerned! If I said “Come here, ” she’d run the totally opposite way. If I said “Eat this,” she’d spit it out.   I had no clue what I was doing, was at my whit’s end and it was my own fault. I was training her to be “disobedient” by allowing her to not obey. Yes, you read that right. I did not even expect that a two or three year old could be taught to obey. I was so used to seeing screaming, tantrum taking kids in my travels out and about that I thought this was the norm, even though somehow I knew instinctively that it was dysfunctional. It was the hardest job I ever did. Honestly. For nearly three weeks we worked on nothing but obeying the first time. And you know what? Once that norm was set, and once she knew that I really did EXPECT her to mind her elders, then we had a sense of peace in this house. That issue was settled. It did come up every now and again, because you see, children are gamblers and if they think that you are going to bend, they’ll always take the chance. If they know you are firm, they won’t bother.

Once I realized that I was the mother and that she was the child things started turning around. 🙂 By the way for you young mother’s out there- some advice that I got that helped was “Never give a command that you do not intend to have obeyed.”  and “Give small commands at first to establish in your own mind and the child’s that you are to be obeyed.”

For some of you, this may seem harsh. In reality, we have a very pleasant home and our kids are not oppressed or miserable. Ephesians 5 and 6  says that we should not be ignorant, but that we should know what the  will of the Lord is: That we should be filled with the Spirit. What does this look like in practical life? We’ll be singing songs in our hearts to the Lord;  husbands will be loving their wives like Christ loved His church; wives will be submitting to their own husbands leadership and children will be obedient to their parents.  They just know that Mom and Dad (cough, sputter….well, most of the time Dad) expect  obedience.

And you know what? Their future employers will thank us some day that we taught them to respect authority. Our community will thank us someday that they learned to obey the civil government and not end up in jail, costing millions of taxpayer dollars. By the way, jail is the biggest “time out” ever, Moms, so discipline your kids now, so that the government will not have to do it later! Okay,  I have WAY digressed!!

All that to say, Rebekah is one of the sweetest girls I know!  🙂