I have had to do a lot of disciplining of Kaitlin as she has so much to learn. So many time outs, down on my knees at her eye level to talk about things. So many hugs after the cries. Last night I laid in my bed thinking about her. About what it may be a year from now when a lot of life learning has happened for her since she hasn't really had any "teaching" in her life. I thought about how yesterday we had to learn a hard lesson and I actually had to make her scared for a while. Because of her past she thinks she needs to just take what she likes and if she thinks she may get in trouble for taking without asking she will hide it. I have found remorse isn't one of her top runners when she is naughty. A time out is just that , sitting on a chair for 4 minutes. It isn't teaching her what she needs to learn because that is the discipline she has had the last 2 1/2 years. It doesn't affect her. It is hard. I needed to make her understand it is wrong to steel from others. She took a little girls coat because she thought she should have it. I made it clear to Kaitlin the little girl was very mad and she was probably telling the teacher and the teacher was telling the little girls mom. The mom would want to talk with her, to tell her how naughty it is to steel and the mom would be angry. I talked about how when people are older and they steel they get put in jail by the police. Nothing got her attention until I said this. She then started to cry and say she didn't want to go to jail and wanted to stay with us forever. I let her cry a little about it. I wanted to see the remorse so I knew there was something learned. So I knew she would think twice before just taking something at school again and even at home when it doesn't belong to her. I then held her in my arms for a while and was down on her level talking calmly, telling her she would always be with us because we love her and she is our little girl. We are her mommy and daddy forever. I told her the police won't take her to jail. I told her she did need to bring the jacket back and say sorry and that she will not take the jacket again. Then the little girl would not be mad anymore and it would be okay. She repeated quite a bit the rest of the day how she was so sorry for steeling and she was going to say sorry and give the jacket back. I think it was good for Kaitlin to learn this lesson. It was hard. To see her cry made me hurt inside. So last night as I thought about all of this I began to think about our Lord, our Father in heaven who will always be our Father. He will always accept us if we believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and what he did for us. But I also think about his every day task of seeing what we do, listening to us, teaching us the lessons we need to learn. I think about what he could do to us for all our wrongs. Jail, but not just any jail, Hell. Yes, hell is our punishment. Yet, he loves us so much he gave His life so we didn't have to go there. His life for ours. His ears for our voices, our complaints, our nags, our wants. 24/7..... Years and years of 24/7, thousands of years actually. Another name for our Lord is Patience. It has to be... No wonder it will be praising God in heaven. He deserves at least that. There is a song on right now and the words are; "everlasting God, you won't grow weary." I am thankful for Him not growing weary. I grow weary!
How about we praise our God in heaven every time we pray for this coming week. Praise Him, magnify Him. Give him everything we are to bless HIM. Miss Kaitlin is a blessing from my Lord. I am so thankful for her. I am learning much because of her, more teaching on patience too. May I lift her up as praise to my Lord and Savior, my boys as praise, my husband as praise. Praise for small things like a quiet house, but praise when I am teaching my children life lessons. Praise when I am being taught life lessons. Praise to our Lord and Savior!
Dear God, Father, Saviour, Patience, Teacher,
Thank you for yesterday's quiet. Thank you for Kaitlin, Brant, Camden, Kale and Kai. Thank you for Brad. Thank you for family, for a mom who taught me life lessons, for a dad that is still with me here on this earth to continue teaching me and counseling me through some of your life lessons. Thank you for not being on me ALL the time when You are teaching. Thank you for hearing, thank you for loving. Praise be to you Father for saving me from eternal punishment. Praise you Father God for caring not just for me, but for every single person on this earth. I love you Lord, praise you for not growing weary. Annie
