Not what I thought this day would look like….

It was Sunday morning and my husband and I were SO EXCITED, we are starting a new sermon series today at a new church.  Praying and anxious to see if we could make it through with our 4 year old son sitting in the service with us, I’m still not ready to start him in another class during church.  He is probably more ready than I am.  Sitting in church the one thing I am anxious about is that maybe the church would be really quiet, saying a prayer and getting ready to start the sermon and at that moment he would start signing out loud his ABC’s.  That is a huge accomplishment that we are very proud of, but just not during church.  So, we have been praying for our son (that was diagnosed on the autism spectrum a year ago) to speak and now we are praying he doesn’t use his words during church. 

Service starts, we are doing pretty good, all 4 kids sitting together, but we never know what our son is thinking and how he will respond to different situations.  I brought in Johnny from the Monsters University movie, just a little something for him to hold onto.  He decides to drop it, doesn’t want anyone to pick it up for him.  That was his plan.  We didn’t know, so as his sister picks it up for him, he gets frustrated and upset and tosses it again.  I tell her to just leave it, then the boy sitting behind us kindly picked it up and set it on his chair beside him.  How sweet, thank you I said, as I tried to keep him from seeing it wasn’t on the floor.  At that point I am thinking OH NO, I better get him out of here before he sees it isn’t on the floor anymore and throws a fit.

Let me go back to my feelings as I was worshipping this awesome, exciting morning.  I was thinking to myself, I want to be more joyful, happy and relaxed.  I am, for the most part, but sometimes LIFE, the untidiness of my home and a slight overbooking of schedules cause me to be a little rigid.

I leave the sanctuary, still in site of the sermon and all the sudden my entire family is walking out.  WHAT???  I was still going to make the best of this.  JOYFUL, HAPPY and RELAXED….until I see the look in my husbands eyes.  I will get into what happened another time.

So, our church experience didn’t end up like we thought, we instead had to have a teachable moment with our older children.  One child that thinks she has to help us parent and the others who have forgotten that they are old enough to worship and listen to the sermon with us.  Its ok, we needed that!!!   It wasn’t our plan but in the end Gods plan was more important for our family, as always.

James 1:2

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 

Do you ever ask your self, am I strict enough, not enough???  You’ve heard stories of children rebelling from growing up in a really strict home, but you have seen what happens to children that have lived in a not so strict home.   

Sometimes everything happens so fast , we are quick to react, the anger sets in.  Is that how I should have handled that?  You’re in the moment and sometimes the things we do in the moment aren’t that effective.

So, we have to accept the grace that God gives us and we confess it was wrong, and we say we are sorry.  We were really upset but didn’t need to respond how we did. 

We have to have a game plan to put in place for these kids.  Therefore, we pull out tools, books from parenting classes, we go google crazy, search pins on Pinterest for Great consequences for kids and 4 Ways to get our children to behave and respect us.

We sometimes forget the ONE amazing tool that is available to us, the words we find in the bible. 

Proverbs 22:6

Train-up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Ephesians 6:1-4

 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.  “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise—  “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Hebrew 12:11

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

So, we talk as parents and we PULL the strings tighter, tell the kids there will be consequences if they disrespect us and how we want them to act, share what it tells us in the bible. 

We give them grace just as God gives us, we teach them just as we have to always remind ourselves what is important to God as parents, business owners, Christians and we aren’t always the example we want to be, we mess up over and over again.  WHY do we expect so much from our children they are sinners just like us and we are here to shape and mold them for their future.  To give them TOOLS from God’s word to LIVE BY.
Anxious and excited to see what happens this weekend and what we can teach our kids when the push it again.
#bringingithome