Don't you just hate it when something you did as a kid comes back to haunt you? Well, when I was a brilliant teenager, there was a day when I thought my mother didn't do a darned thing all day. In a heated conversation between the two of us, she suggested I sit down and write out a list of the things she did and the things I did. I'm sure she thought I would see the light as I was composing my list and come begging for forgiveness for my arrogance. To her dismay, and now my embarrassment, the list was quite unevenly distributed. Talk about crushing my mom's spirit...shame on me!
Well, I have to say, I am in t-r-o-u-b-l-e! At least I was a smarty pants teenager when I made my list, and at least I had some responsiblity by that point (job, washing my own clothes), but Carleigh is only days away from 9 years old. One of her chores is unloading the dishwasher. I have not been very consistent with making her do it lately. The other day I asked her to unload it. Oh my, did I get an ear full! After having heard enough, I sent her to her room to cool off and write a report about her behavior while she was there. It consisted of phrases such as, "Dishwashers are just a waste of metal for the whole world," and "God gave us our hands for a reason!" Followed by, "I'll unload it but don't put soooooooooooo (took up 3 lines) much in there!" The second part of her report was dedicated to her behavior. She agrees that her behavior was bad, but she was frustrated and couldn't help it. Here's one of my favorites..."Just like you kind of go over the top when you get mad or frustrated at me or Luke or Cora..." (Oh boy! Nothing like having the mirror shoved in front of your face!) Here's another favorite, "I had told Luke 2 to 4 times!" and "It gets really earting (irritating) when you are only 8 to 9 years old." She did close by saying she was very sorry about all that happend that day.
Prayers please! :) Think I need to spend some serious time on my knees begging for the tools necessary to deal with these precious gifts.
So how about you? Have you had any "apple" moments lately?
