Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Old Story Tapes

Yesterday Buster woke up ornery.

Wouldn't wash his hands,
wouldn't brush his teeth,
wouldn't wash his face,
wouldn't speak clearly,
wouldn't be respectful....

His sister was down in her room
unwilling to make her bed,
unwilling to get dressed,
unwilling to get any kind of speed going....

So, after praying with them,
talking to them,
going over the Bible verses
and encouraging them to do right
with little results

I decided to stop prodding , told the big girls to make sure they didn't leave their rooms and I hopped in the car and went to the licensing department a couple miles down the road and picked up the registration for the suburban.

I was back in 15 minutes, but it was enough to turn Missy around. She didn't want to miss out on any other "outing" that just might happen.

But alas for Buster. He dug in deeper.
I'm begging the Lord for more patience for this child. He definitely pushes my buttons. I had to set him on a chair and just walk away. He would discuss Bible verses with me. He loves to talk. He was interested in what I had to say about planting good seeds and had some of his own thoughts to add to it, but head knowledge doesn't magically turn into heart responses and he refused to obey. I thought maybe if I put his memory verses on a cassette he could learn them faster and I went in search of an old tape.... what I found was a treasure trove of OLD cassettes the girls had when they were little. Your Story Hour Bible stories, Gospel moments, Janice Attic, Children of the King, etc.. I popped one in Buster's player and "time out" lost it's sting as the little guy got lost in a story of Jesus and the Storm. I wasn't sure he would listen to a story tape, but he's listened to this one 3 times over and wants to tell everybody about it. He even went looking for the Bible story books and found the pictures to match the story. I'm only going to give him one tape at a time. He can learn the stories well before he gets the next one.

His attitude brightened around lunch time, but when I asked him to do a little chore he fell to pieces and was back in time out. A couple hours later he was "cured" and went sledding with Bri.

Missy on the other hand was great most of the day... and then turned nasty around 4:30 pm and ended up in bed and slept until 7 when I woke her up.

Every day is a surprise as to how it's going to go. I wake up with great hopes and see them dashed to pieces at my feet or I wake up dreading the day and lo and behold, they are sweet and happy.

I went out with Christina to the J2B rehearsal and had a fun time. Her dad couldn't make it and Christina had to do his whole script as well as her own. She did  amazingly well. Bethlehem is beautiful! I'm taking the twins through on the Wednesday night dress rehearsal... they'll talk about it for days, I'm sure.

1 comment:

Marty Walden said...

This life we live is certainly one surprise after another, not always pleasant! Our kids keep us jumping to stay one step ahead and no matter what we do it seems right beyond our grasp. You are doing great at walking away and starting over. I've been doing this for years and I'm having to use that even more with my son. I get what you mean about scripture and the head vs. the heart. So frustrating but you can't do one thing to change them except pray and stay on the same track. So very hard for us moms.