Bless my baby's heart. He had a rough morning of learning some pretty difficult lessons. Turning the other cheek and realizing we are called to a higher standard are tough for adults to master much less my three year old. But like I mentioned, today Jack faced both.
In a Bible study I'm working through right now I realized -- or rather more accurately God rebuked me -- that I have not been parenting through Scripture. My rules and guidelines are of course based therein yet while I am always mindful to explain reasoning to Jack (even if it's "because God made me responsible for you") I've never slowed down long enough to teach Jack the Scripture that birthed the guidelines. The ability to immediately put into action my recent realization made this morning such a sweet experience with Jack. We pulled away from the other kiddos like always (no one needs to see correction) and I explained to Jack that sometimes things happen that don't seem fair and sometimes friends act ugly to us BUT God teaches us that we should love everyone even if they are being ugly and that God never says it's okay to be mean to someone just because he/she was mean first. The lesson had to make a couple of passes through Jack's head and we had quite a lengthy conversation as he worked through what this new lesson meant and what ramifications his newfound knowledge had on his behavior and attitude.
In the end, the lesson seemed to make a difference. But goodness was it hard for my mommy-heart to teach him these things; I wanted to right the wrongs and correct the injustices for him. I only thought the hard part of parenting was the late nights. I told Luke if I knew pre-children how hard this would be I might have tempered the baby-fever a little longer. Jack has since calmed and the issues of the morning have faded from his memory; me on the other hand -- I am having a little trouble coming down from the ledge...perhaps I should go stand in front of the mirror and have a little chat with myself about forgiveness.
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