Tuesday, November 9, 2010

What I Declared War On

Sorry Sally-Girl for dragging this out till Tuesday.
Your guesses where great...I really loved them all!  Thanks for playing my Monday game with me.  Steve had been in the mountains with some awesome friends hunting, and he came home a day early with his 1st ever elk.  So we were BUSY processing last night.
So back to WHAT I declared war on...
Are These Kids All Yours? was the closest.  I am declaring war on weeds...yep, weeds and the fact that I have been negligent in dealing with them.  Here is a quote from The Duties Of Parents;
“Beware of letting small faults pass unnoticed under the idea “it is a little one.”  There are no little things in training children; all are important.  Little weeds need plucking up as much as any.  Leave them alone, and they will soon be great.”
I have been negligent in overlooking the little weeds in my children’s hearts, and believe me, they have become rather large and irritating.
Proverbs 29:17 is a verse I often think of; “Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart.”
One of the things that Steve and I have always committed to as parents it to ENJOY our children, and we really do!  However, here in my home, I have been frustrated because I have let some little attitudes and sins go.  I start to notice that we are all more frustrated, angry, arguing...there is no rest.  The children start being more disrespectful to me, more disobedient, and then I am not finding “delight” as their mother.
So, yesterday I got serious with the fact that I need to recommit to diligently training and discipling my children and take care of the little weeds that I have been neglecting.
I must give an honorable mention to Lori before I end this post. She said;
"Hmmmm, gosh...I really don't know!
A war against things distracting you from the Word??
I don't know.
But I'm really curious now!”
I laughingly thought to myself, “Well, I would have to get rid of the children if I were to declare war against things distracting me from the Word.  I probably shouldn’t do that.”
By the way, as soon as I made the decision to recommit to my children’s attitudes, one of my children, who has always had a low threshold for dealing with frustrations, fell apart for the next hour...I mean FELL A PART!!!!!!  I think the enemy (satan, not my children...lol) met my declaration of war.
But they are worth it!!!!
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8 comments:

  1. Fabulous post, Shonni!

    And a stunningly adorable photo. My gracious, they're cute to the core!!

    Love your heart, friend!

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  2. Love the photo!

    Love the truth and transparency of your heart!

    Praying with you - and I have complete empathy for you! I know how little weeds turn into huge fields before we know it - if not diligent!

    Love you,
    Jill
    PS The new font is way too hard to read - maybe just for me. :-(

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  3. Yep- just talked about this today. I think as a mommy of many the sheer volume of weeds is frustrating. And yet if we don't take the time- they are Monster Weeds. YIKES! Jason and I constantly feel like are we disciplining enough- not enough....we want to enjoy, but we want them to be honoring. It's a tough balance, but we have to be on guard! Thanks for this post- just confirms to me that we are doing what is right!

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  4. I am so with you on this one! In fact I have been thinking about emailing you on how you deal with the constant irritants- the weeds that are growing in our home and hearts. It has made Mom(Me) crabby and they are getting crabby with each other- constant tattling, etc...

    I was wondering today why I'm not feeling the joy I should be feeling.

    I'm joining the WAR ON THE WEEDS! Love the verse Proverbs 29:17

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  5. Love it mama!

    We have declared the same "war."

    Their little souls are so worth it.

    Proverbs says to train/discipline while they are yet tender--before the "soil" of their hearts gets tangled with weeds.

    Battling with you,
    Summer

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  6. Shonni,
    Thank you for this.

    My three kids (and a 4th on the way) are so young - all 5 or under. My energy levels are so much lower with the pregnancy so my tolerance for things is much lower too. But when I hear my kids just yelling at each other I know it's because that's what they've seen from Mommy.

    I've had wonderful seasons of enjoying my children, and most of the time I still do. But there are days when I just don't know what to do because of the disrespect that's going on in my home. Now I realize it's because of the "little weeds" I've let grow up in their hearts (and mine too).

    Time for me to declare war too.

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  7. Great post and GREAT POINT! I think as mothers we always will go through this. Seasons of doing well in our disciplining and seasons of letting things pass. But the seasons of letting things "slide" always bring turmoil, which in turn ushers in our time of "war on the weeds" . I loved your perspective :) Good reminder to us all

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  8. Ya know, I think about this analogy every spring and summer when we are working in the garden. You have to pull those weeds as soon as possible or it gets so difficult to weed the garden after it has grown up. And if you wait too long, sometimes the tender plants get pulled up with the weeds.

    And I always prefer to weed when the soil is damp and soft--so much easier. This makes me think of the home environment and the relationship b/w my kids and me. When the condition of the home is peaceful and joyful, it is so much more effective to carefully and gently train. Just like it is easier to train and pass a legacy when the parent/child relationship is conducive to often necessary heart to heart talks.

    Anyway, thoughts from the garden. . . .FWIW. ;0)

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