~Wednesday Wisdom Tip ~ Swimming in Soda

Thankful for an afternoon of interruption free work, my heart had no worries. My kids had their best friends over to play in our fenced-in back yard so I scurried to get as much done as possible.

Mid-way through the afternoon, I peaked out the sliding glass door, thinking I spotted brown liquid in our plastic kiddy pool.

Brown?

Approaching the now “pond”, I looked up to see two little guilty faces.

Coke.

These two creative persons slipped soda from frig, creating a Coke pool! How cool they thought! The evidence of empty cans had been thrown over the fence.

Furious, I lost it! A seven year old should know better! I quickly took the other child home and disciplined my son.

Today’s circumstances with teens are much bigger than coke in the pool!

Last Wednesday, I received the dreaded phone call. “Mom, I had a car accident.” Though many years later, I still felt the urge to loose it. But time and experience whispered to me, “Respond don’t react!”

Driving to the front of the high school, I had to talk myself down the whole way there. “It’s going to be alright. It’s just a car. Show compassion. How would you want to be treated?” It’s a good thing I live a ways from school!

I’d love to say I handled it perfectly, but that would be untrue. With the Lord’s help, though, this time, I didn’t loose it!

When you find yourself in the place where your mind and mouth are wanting very badly to react, giving your child a piece of your mind, breathe deep. Talk yourself down. When you give yourself time to calm down, the Holy Spirit has time to give you the response that you will need.

“They will know we are Christians by our love” applies to our kids too!

Lynn

2 Comments

  1. anonymous says:

    When my oldest child was two years old, I used to lament to co-workers about the difficulties of potty training. One wise mentor/friend said, “Little children, little problems – big children, big problems.” I always remembered that – generally when the child grew and the problems grew right along with her. She accidentally broke my new ceramic stovetop by climbing where I had told her not to when it was only a month old. Done the car accident thing three times. She joined a cult once. Thankfully, she figured it out fairly quickly and we had a sweet prodigal reunion. But the latest difficulty is an unplanned pregnancy. She is a young adult with 2 1/2 years left of college, and the baby’s father wants nothing more to do with her because of the pregnancy. Praise the Lord that He had taught me to hold my tongue through the many trials of life so far. I know that my role is love her unconditionally; to support her without enabling her. Experience with our Lord tells me that this too will work out. But for now, I feel very tired and weak. Although she is an “adult” in years, she is now dependent on us for everything. I have two younger children also, and my husband and I are getting older by the minute. Did I say yet that I’m so tired??

    1. Friend, I know that tired and weak feeling. I don’t know how others raise children without Jesus.

      I love what you said about learning to hold our tongue. Asking Jesus to do that in me every day!

      Thanks so very much for sharing!

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