Oh, our Monday is off to a start. Not sure yet if it is a good one or not.
The school building is on lock-down again because the kids have been disrespecting stuff in there, making messes & not cleaning up, and in general making poor choices. This impacts my mornings because I can no longer tell them to go do their math while I clean up – I have to go over when they do.
So I need to get my act together a bit better so that I am ready to go over to school when they are, and I can take care of the kitchen at lunch time or something. Until then, we will manage to figure things out.
I have hit a bump in the road with the kids these past 2 weeks or so. It feels that way. I feel like no matter what they are not listening, they are not exhibiting the character traits I am wanting to see. So after talking to friends, I have gone back to the drawing board in a couple ways.
I am reading Shepherding a Child’s heart again – I read this when my oldest was about 6 months and there was not a whole lot of application at that point, so I shelved the book and lost sight of it’s ideas. I did get to watch a few videos from the video series several years ago, but for some reason I think we missed many. So, I am reading it again.
Next, I am reading Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends – by the Mally Siblings. This book is written by 2 sisters and a brother and it helps talk kids through, in a very matter of fact way, the issues of sibling rivalry and tries to instill the value of respecting and loving each other. So, each night, I read a few pages to the gang and we talk about it briefly. So far it has had a positive impact, the kids love the pictures (cartoon-like drawings that the father illustrated in the book) and they seem to be receptive to the concepts it is teaching.
Lastly, I had the boys look over Sally Clarkson’s list of the 24 Family Ways – these are character traits and a description of each. I had the two oldest pick out 5 they do not think they are doing well. Then we talked about each one their picked and why. Then as we talked one on one, I asked them to pick one that they need the most work on. I asked if they would pray about that trait each morning before their Bible reading and I told them I would pray daily as well. After 30 days we are going to come back together (one on one) and discuss if things have improved and hopefully move on to another one. I am pretty excited about this and hope it works well for us. We will see.
I am planning to order Sally’s book Our 24 Family Ways – I already have the coloring book, and I hope to use it to have family devotions focusing on those character traits that we all want to see in our kids.
The good news is that I can see my boys have a heart to improve – I can sense a tenderness in this area and a sense of repentance too. So I am encouraged that they really do want to do better, but maybe they are not sure where to start. So, I hope that I am helping with these things we are discussing, reading and studying.
I have a dear friend who told me she thought these 3 books covered just about everything their family wanted to cover. So, I feel like I am on a good path, lots of reading, lots of prayer and lots of talking with these little ones.
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