Today is an out of the ordinary day because Scott took the day off from work to go to a Brave's game. Apparently this a dream come true for him because of the location of the seats, but I will leave him the fun of giving you all the details. What this means for me is, I had Scott around this morning. Yea. Plus, his friend, Bud, spent last night with us, so that he could go to the game with Scott.
Because it was a special morning, and we had the rare opportunity to have breakfast together, we all loaded up and headed to Cracker Barrel. Before we even left, Ada was rubbing her eyes, a clear indication that it was time for her morning nap. But I was stubborn and determined to go out for breakfast, so we went anyway. I am now paying the consequences for that decision.
In the middle of breakfast, she pitched one of the loudest fits I have ever seen come out of her. I had to get up and leave the restaurant out of respect for the other diners. She was clearly so exhausted, and I was thinking that we had a serious morning nap coming to us once we got home. Well, we have now been home for an hour, and she is still screaming in her bed. I have tried rocking her, letting her cry it out, everything, but she is fighting sleep with everything that is in her. It seems to me that she is overtired, which is my fault. She does seem to be quieting somewhat as I type this. The screams are slightly more muffled. Though every once in a while, she lets out a very high pitched shreak.
Her behavior led to a discussion on discipline because I made the observation that if she was a little bit older, her behavior would clearly call for some serious discipline. However, I also realize that as the parent, I should have had the wisdom to know she was just too tired to go out for breakfast. So really, maybe it's me that needs to be disciplined;) It's scary because our responsibility to discipline her is literally only weeks away. I mean, obviously, we are teaching her, "no-no" for issues like grabbing the spoon while I am feeding her, trying to touch outlets, things like that. But the real issues--like attitude--well, it's getting closer and closer to the time when we will have to deal with these things, and it sort of scares me to death.
As I was thinking about today, and the situation at breakfast, I realized that the real issue in these early years, is that we--Scott and me--will be Ada's first view of God. Before she knows him, she will know us. With God, His discipline for us always comes down to working all things together for our good. For our ultimate good. So, shouldn't that be our priority in discipline. That is the test that should always be in our minds. And this means that sometimes, comfort, rather than discipline is needed. Or, even, prevention. Like today--Ada's good meant staying at home and letting her go down for a nap at her normal time. But I opted for my good. But it also means that there will be times that it will be so much easier to look over her behavior, but that would not be for Ada's ultimate good. So my prayer--oh God, give us wisdom to know what actions to take to promote Ada's ultimate good. What actions to take to always point Ada towards you. And be gracious and merciful with us, Lord. Because, I know that more often than not we will get it wrong. How thankful I am that my salvation and Ada's salvation are not dependent on anything that I accomplish!!
2 comments:
Great insight. Man, you are learning so much. In light of this post, I will be very interested to hear your thoughts on Voddie's book. He talked a whole lot about doing things for the kingdom instead of for us/our children/the world. You guys are doing the right thing by praying for wisdom. God will surely provide.
amen and amen! diddo diddo.
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