My 4-year-old daughter acts like a little teenager. She is always telling us what we should and should not do, what makes her happy and unhappy, and is starting to slam doors for emphasis. She has learned recently that slamming doors will not be tolerated and she will have to close any door she slams quietly 5 times for emphasis. Ha! But then she is sure to tell me that she is "very not happy with me!". *Sigh*
I wasn't really prepared for a teenager so quickly in my life. We spend our children's first years trying to get them to say words and express themselves and then, WHAM!, they start smarting off. Ugh!
Rachel has also learned that smarting off can get her a mouthful of soap. She also expresses that she is "very not happy" with me after she spits the soap out and stops crying enough to tell me. It's pitiful, I know, but necessary. This, I seem to explain to her often through our days.
You know, when I was a child, I can remember thinking how glad I would be to have kids so that I could discipline them instead of having to be the one being disciplined. As an adult and a mother, I now realize how silly this notion was. It's often exasperating and exhausting to discipline my children. I hate having to tell them over and over the same things. I know they can't forget that quickly. And I can't help thinking to myself, "Is this what God feels when I do the same sins over and over again? Does He feel like He's banging His head against a brick wall?" Of course not, I know, but it does make me realize my need for a Savior and for my Heavenly Father. I just hope that I can get that realization through to my children as they get older.
1 comments:
OH boy - you're going to have your hands full when she actually is 13! We're starting to get some of it with Moira now, but I hope the boys will be better! Thanks for making me think about how we do the same thing to our Heavenly Father... how humbling and what a great example we can be of God's forgiveness and mercy.
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