Mom Heart Moments #25

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

WHEN MY CHILDREN WERE YOUNG, part of my duty as a mom was to train my children’s wills to develop strength and self-control. They remember us saying all the time, “You have a choice to make. If you obey me, then you will be blessed. But if you choose to disobey me, then you are choosing disciplinary consequences that will be unpleasant.” If a fussy little one continued whining after such a warning, we might remove the child from the area where the rest of us were, for a time. Thus, even our toddlers learned the self-control of calming down and communicating in a normal voice —gaining control of their little spirits. We wanted our children to find internal motivation to obey us and to learn that there were positive and negative consequences to their choices —just as it says in Scripture.

Of course, the key to this is being consistent and following through unless there are mitigating circumstances —a child is ill, exhausted, or overstimulated —which often happens because the parent led the child to be that way because of a demanding and overly busy schedule! Sometimes the only recourse a child has is to cry or complain if they have become physically or emotionally spent because of too much activity and demands on their young body.

Helping our children know beforehand what we expected of them in most situations gave them guidelines to follow and helped them obey. We see this modeled in Scripture, as God is also this kind of trainer —He was very specific in the law to teach His children how to live life well. And so we sought to let our children know, without fail, what the guidelines and expectations were that would define their lives.

Do you usually interact with your children in a spirit of compassion, or is your approach antagonistic? Ask the Lord to show you. And remember, tomorrow is a new day!