July 11, 2012
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Motherhood Sanctifies You
You know God brings things into your life to sanctify you! To make you more like Christ! From the moment we’re justified (freely given eternal life based on nothing we do) we begin the process of progressive sanctification which will continue till Christ comes back or we die! That’s just reality! No one can escape sanctification!
Well yesterday was one of those mommy days that challenged my sanctification!
I share this because I am a big cheerleader of VERY consistent discipline. I also believe that much of the really intense discipline is from age 18 months till 5. That’s when you, as parent, have the challenge of teaching your child who is in charge. They must learn the line of proper, God given authority! It’s KEY! But you don’t want to break their spirit. There’s a fine balance of capturing their heart, but being firm and following through. NO EMPTY words around here! If mama says it, it happens!
Well, yesterday that was challenged!
Clark is in the middle of potty training. On Saturday he decided he didn’t want to wear diapers! Great! I am all for being done with diaper duty!
In the morning he peed twice on the carpet, after pretty much staying dry Saturday till Monday. (Oh we’ve gone cold turkey, no diaper, no pull ups…just diapers at bedtime)
So an hour after he went, I said, “Let’s go into the potty and go pee.”
We went in there and he said, “I don’t want to go.”
“Let’s try!” I said
“No I don’t want to try.” he replied.
I felt the battle begin!
I told him that he would stay in the bathroom until he went pee! Thinking that would work…HA!
He was in the bathroom (with the door open and not sitting on the toilet, but just in the bathroom) for THREE HOURS! He ate lunch in there!
Finally he said, “I am ready to go!” He climbed on the potty and went!
WOW! Three hours! It wore me out! Now if you’re not a mom you may not understand being worn out, but it felt like a battle of the wills and it mentally drained me!
But I am all about no empty words and in all honesty this was one of the hardest things to follow through on.
Then this morning we decided to go to the park. A must around here is to go potty before we leave to go anywhere. Clark could have gone, it had been an hour or so, but he refused. I said, “If you don’t go pee, daddy will stay home with you and you don’t get to go on the surprise!” (The boys didn’t know where we were going!)
He cried, but refused to pee! Thankfully I had John to support me on this one!
So John and Clark stayed home! Again that was a super hard follow through! I wanted to enjoy a family day!
WOW he’s stubborn!
I texted John to meet us for lunch, so John told Clark to go pee and he could meet us for lunch.
Guess what!? He peed!
So as a mom we must be consistent! Say what we mean and mean what we say!
So yes I feel like God is using this in a couple of ways…for one showing me how I look when I dig in my heels and refuse to obey and how He must feel when His children are really stubborn! I pray He uses this time to make me more like Jesus!
Anyone have any stories of times they’ve had to have really tough follow through?
Comments (2)
So….not so long ago, it was my oldest’s Golden Birthday (6) and she was VERY excited about her party! We had been having a bit of a rough week, and the day before her party, she had thrown away a piece of her dinner. Well, mama found out, and the next step was admitting to Daddy what had happened. She was NOT going to budge. I was sure that I could get her to, after telling her she had to stay in her room until she did (I think this is how it happened, it’s been 5 months). After quite awhile, it was almost time for bed. So, I told her she had one last chance to tell daddy or she was going to lose her party for the next day. I did end up repeating myself a few times, trying to help her understand I was serious, and telling her I knew this meant a lot to her. Nothing. Even when I picked up the phone and was starting to dial the first parent, there was no ‘OKAAAAAAY Mommy…(and admit the food thing).’ Nothing. So, so sad. We have had a few of those *kinds* of things since then. I do think Mommies seem to figure out real fast (maybe a TAD bit faster than daddies) that you really need to mean what you say, and that you may feel worse than they do. We have def been working on our parenting (love the book Don’t Make Me Count to Three) and really really wish i could parent this child *then* the way i have finally figured out now. Trying not to mourn over past anger and some broken spirits, but choosing to look ahead and know that there still is so much time that I pray I will be given with her as well as the others! Thanks for this post! ~susan
I agree w/ you Heather…what we say, we need to mean! It’s made me much more careful of what I say and how I say it…so I can make sure I follow through. I enjoyed your story of triumph
I’ve honestly not thought of telling my child that they need to go potty–I’ve always just taken the stance, that I can make them sit there, but can’t make them go. Interesting…obviously it worked! And I’m assuming that he needed to go, he just didn’t want to. (???) Sometimes it’s those subtle things that only us mom’s notice, ya know? Hmmm…well, I’ll be potty training again…so thanks for the tips. 