So this verse has been kicking my tail since the kids and I went over it together last night. This verse has been permeating many of my decisions I made today. Last night when I went to bed, not long after, Selah threw up. I knew I should have her come and sleep with me so that I can take care of her. That verse ran through my head. My flesh wanted to leave the mess for the morning and tell her to go back to bed.
When Selah came in, Charis always comes in also. "This is the right thing to do." But my flesh was angry because Charis is a crazy, loud sleeper. So this invitation meant no more sleep for me.
Kesed was really upset when he woke up this morning. My flesh said "he's fine, he'll get over it and go back to bed." But that was not the right thing to do. The right thing to do was to check on him and love him, unselfishly.
This sounds like a day with many victories....until the afternoon happened. I lost my temper, more than once, I put the kids to bed 45 minutes early, I got angry and was frustrated. As I got in the bath tonight (that's the place God likes to deal with me) and I was reminded of this verse.
It seems that somewhere between lunch and home school, I forgot it.
I think this is a great parenting verse. I hear all these moms who seem so loving ALL of the time. But I'm not going to full myself into thinking they are always that patient. We all have these times where we're at the end of ourselves and we want to crawl into a quiet room with some good coffee and sit there until WE decide to get up. No demands. But then I remembered the joy my family brings to me. The joy it is to serve them. So tomorrow, I'm going to plaster this verse to my forehead and stop making excuses for be selfish with my time. And how if I want to see more of God, I'm going to have to eliminate the sin of knowing the right thing to do and not doing it.
