A Slap In The Face

I am reading a book called

"Raising Godly Tomatoes"

by : L. Elizabeth Krueger

I really got challenged as I was reading.

Being a stay at home mom is a very challenging job

and sometimes I forget how important

of a job it really is.

It is probably one of the most important jobs

a person could ever have.

In this book there are two paragraphs that really caught me.

I have written part of it on my blog before but the whole thing just grabbed me.

"Most of us can relate to feeling frustrated and angry with our children from time to time. Parental anger and frustration are usually the result of one of two things: ignorance of effective parenting strategies or wrong parental priorities. A parent who does not know how to handle an out-of-control child will certainly become frustrated, and this frustration will often turn to anger. On the other hand, if you know exactly what to do when your child begins to misbehave, and you are willing to do it, you will simply handle the matter and move on. Stress will be eliminated and replaced with a feeling of satisfaction with a parenting job well done.

Sometimes parents know what to do, but are simply unwilling to do it. They expect their children to behave perfectly with little or no effort on their part. Or they expect their children to just stay out of the way while they proceed with their lives as if their children didn't exist. They let their ambitions, housework, or hobbies become a higher priority than parenting, and they begin to view their children as annoying interruptions. This attitude guarantees failure, frustration, and anger. Only by reordering priorities and recognizing that parenting is a highly demanding, full time job will there be any hope for decent results and the absence of frustration. Give up everything else if necessary, and undertake the world's most important and fulfilling job to the best of your ability. Expect it to be a demanding job at times, but look forward to the challenge instead of resenting it. Parenting will be far less frustrating if you learn how to do it well, and if it is not competing with everything else for you time and attention"

 These two paragraphs practically brought me to tears.

I am so frustrated sometimes.

As I sat back and read this,

I realized....this is me.

I am not putting parenting as my #1.

I may think I am,

but when I do a reality check,

I push my girls aside way too often for other priorities that I have put before them.

And then I get angry because they have interrupted me.

This book is really showing me how important it is to

be there for my girls 100%.

Not only when it's convenient.

If I need to stop doing something to help them,

so be it.

If I have to can my ideas of getting all my dishes done

because my girls won't stop bickering and I need to 

be beside them the whole day to teach them

what's right and wrong,

so be it.

My dishes can wait.

They are my #1 priority.

I need to keep reminding myself that.

They need me to teach them.

They are not going to learn on their own.

They need me to love them.

To discipline them.

To encourage them.

Not to ignore them.

I may sound nutty.

I may sound insane.

but I think she is really onto something with this book.

We grow up with these worldly views that we just accept as normal.

 I am ready to over step those views.

Parent as God intended parenting.

Not as the world says is satisfactory.

I am not willing to just let me children grow up being taught by society.

I want to have them be taught by God through me.