I GET To.....

   

 So why is it that our biggest blessings in life become our heaviest burdens?   They were not intended to be burdens.  More times than not, though, we see them this way.  After reading this blog I encourage you all to find your blessings in your "burdens"

   I have been awakened to the phrase "I Get To".  When  that overwhelming feeling arises in your chest,  and it is just about to blow right out of your mouth, and you are about to scream something at someone, and we both know that it isn't going to end well.....first thing you need to do is stop!!!  And whatever it is you are dealing with at that time,  look at it ,and let the next phrase that comes out of your mouth be,"I GET to....." and don't stop until you can approach the situation with a thankful heart, no matter what it is.

    For example.... You are doing dishes and your kids are in the living room and they begin to fight over a toy for the 573rd time today, and you have had enough!!!!   I mean,  first of all you HAVE to do the dishes because it is very obvious that no one else is going to do them!  After that you HAVE to pay the bills because if you don't you will have no electricity by tomorrow, and then you will HAVE to cook dinner on the grill.....again....and now you HAVE to stop what you are doing to break up this fight!  At this rate you are never going to get done with all that you HAVE to do!!!   So,  you slam down that dish towel and you stomp into the living room and you look those selfish, ungrateful, un-sharing,  never satisfied , spoiled rotten kids in their eyes and you say, with teeth clinched,  "GIVE-ME-THAT-TOY!!!!  You all are the most ungrateful children I have ever laid my eyes on.  There are children in third world countries that only have one toy to share among their twelve brothers and sisters and that  one toy is a stick!!  Look around you!!!  You have a bedroom full of toys, yet you chose to fight over this ONE!!  Well guess what??!!!  NO MORE!! From now on every toy you fight over is going to be mine and I am going to get rid of it and then we will see what you have left to fight over!"

    You walk away feeling horrible and then you try to justify what you did by saying   "well they need to learn.....life isn't going to hand them everything on a silver platter....the world is a rough place and it's time they learn that this behavior will not be accepted...after all the Bible does says 'spare the rod spoil the child'  the last thing this world needs is another 'Honey Boo Boo Child'....."


   Although I do agree with all of  the above, I don't feel that this is what God had in mind when it comes to discipline.   I mean I mess up daily and God doesn't take my house away and say "Now THERE!!! Now you have something to cry about!!!"    The Bible says "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it"  Notice the word "TRAIN" , or teach.....I don't see anything in there that says degrade, yell, scream belittle, and be a bad example, which is what you are doing by acting this way. Now believe me when I say, I am the last person to claim that I have it under control. I struggle with this daily but I am learning to take it one "burden" at a time and am determined to find  the "blessing" in that so called "burden".


    There are a lot of things in life that we "HAVE" to do  OR  do we "GET" to do them?   Let's take that same situation above and rethink somethings to change our hearts.  

   You "GET" to do  the dishes because God gave you two hands that function.  You have running water that flows into a sink to hold it ,and although it isn't the "latest model " sink out there and you aren't working in that "dream kitchen", you are still  so very blessed for the fact that you have dishes enough for everyone to eat off of.  After you are done doing the dishes you GET to pay the bills because we live in a country with the luxury of electricity and running water, and phones that we can take with us anywhere.  Yes ,these are luxuries we have to pay for but I am so very blessed because my husband GETS to have a job and GETS  to go to that job and earn enough money to pay these bills so that I GET to say home with the blessings  (children) that God has entrusted us with.

    Now a fight breaks out....you stop and say "I GET to break up another fight, I GET another opportunity to correct their behavior.  Somewhere there is a mom that would love to have one more fight to break up amongst her kids, but since they were all called Home after that car accident she will never GET to do that again.  Somewhere there is a man in prison, who was neglected as a child, and only wishes now that his mother would have taken the time to correct him and taken the opportunity to direct him down the right path.  If she had, maybe things would have been different for him.  Perhaps his life would have been easier. 
 
  So now God has given you the privilege of another opportunity to correct them before it is too late.  Now your heart is prepared to "attack" this behavior issue the way God intended you to.   No screaming, no yelling, but to calmly with true intentions in your heart "train" them to the right behavior.  To direct them to think through this on their own with questions like....."why are you all fighting over this toy?,  Do you feel that this behavior is good our bad?, How do you think we can solve this problem so that nobody is sad and everybody is happy?"

President John Adams said  "......The Mothers are the earliest and most important Instructors of the youth"  Our "blessings" were not intended to be burdens.  Children are the biggest blessing of all.  Raise them so they know it.  The last thing a child wants to be is a burden on anyones life.  Take the time to train them in the way God intended us to.  The future of America is counting on the mothers to get it right.......