The Lord’s
bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach,
patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those in opposition. 2 Timothy 2:24
Over the past couple of weeks, I have seen a resurgence of “issues”
crop up between my 7 and 5 year old.
Almost daily my husband comes home to hear some report of how the two of
them were “at it” again and needed some time-out to cool off before we could
have a chat about what happened and what was the condition of their heart.
I am not sure where it is coming from…presumably it’s stress
with the upcoming transition back to the US, losing friends again, having to
make choices about what toys and clothes to leave behind, fear of the unknown,
because remember, they have been here for 2 years… Sissi can hardly remember
people or places that we bring up in conversation anymore, and she gets very
frustrated when Indy, Krypto and I say “What, you don’t remember that?”… Poor
girl, we’re trying so hard to stop, but it just “comes out” sometimes.
At the beginning of each school day, we work on our
Scripture memory work, you can see how we do that here -
This past week was declared a “review week” and so there was
no new verse to learn. On Tuesday, as I
was reading 2 Timothy in my own quiet time, I came across 2 Timothy 2:24 about
what a servant of the Lord should be like…. how many times have I seen this
list of attributes; being loving, kind, peaceful, patient, gentle. I’m sure you can name a few verses, as can
I. It is all through the Bible and if He
said it that many times, shouldn’t we do it?
Shouldn’t we have these Fruits of the Spirit in our lives?
I’ve used this verse several times with my 7 year old in
particular this week, because he’ll be 8 in just 2 weeks and something in me is
saying, “He needs to know this, he has got to work on this now, before he gets
much older.” I have had him memorize it,
we’ve written it out, we’ve drawn pictures about what actually happened between
him and his sister, and then he fills in the other side with what “should have”
happened if he had been patient and gentle.
Then it hit me, I am still struggling with this as well,
aren’t I? Aren’t we all?
I have got to remember grace in my parenting, on a DAILY
basis, because I am often argumentative, and not always kind, and the one that
really stuck out to me… am I being gentle when I correct the children that are
in opposition to God’s authority in their life.
And, the truthful answer is, no, I’m not always very gentle. I often times lose my patience and have to
apologize for being rough in my correction.
I might be “right” in that I’m correcting a behavior, but by being
sarcastic or unduly harsh in my correction, and not being gentle, I lose any
ability to work in their heart. They
just get angry in return at my harshness.
Will this change overnight? I don’t think so, and yet I’ve seen
improvement, in them and in me, over the past couple of years. We are all going through a time of stress and
upheaval right now. Just like I
attribute the outbursts on their end to the transition, so my harsh attitude at
times is because of that as well… I feel “busy” all the time trying to wrap up
commitments here, selling our stuff, setting up things in the US, the list
seems to be never ending; yet, the kids still need me, they need my attention
and my love and me to be gentle when I correct them and patient when I feel
they have wronged me (and the Lord) by disobeying. We could all stand to remember the grace in
how we approach each other.
It is so important to hide God’s word in our heart, not just
in the children’s heart, but in OUR heart.
We’re all on this journey, of being a bond-servant to the Lord, and just like I’m still working on
it and am thankful that the Lord’s mercies are new every morning, I need to be
merciful to my children each new day and realize that they are struggling to
learn these Fruits as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment