Sally, you are ruining my life!

The other day my 4 year old was gleefully playing with his 6 month old sister as he normally does. He had 2 different little homemade masks in his hands and he was holding one in front of his face and then the other and Sister was laughing hysterically. While my son was not paying close attention she caught hold of the mask closest to her. He went to raise it back in front of his face and it ripped! Horrors! So the next words that I hear from his mouth, "Sally, you are ruining my life!"

I must admit before entering the room to offer godly counsel I had to laugh and compose myself and wonder how many times between today and the rest of my life would I hear that statement. We often times see the small interruptions in our lives as ruining them. All that it took to repair the homemade mask was a small amount of glue and it was as good as new. But for the moment David could not see that his sister had not ruined his life, she just joined in the fun and accidentially torn the mask.

It is such an easy lesson to teach to my 4 year old but what about when it happens to me?

This lovely Saturday morning everyone was resting, the baby had already eaten and gone back down for a quick nap, and my son was sitting on the bed beside me watching cartoons. I was enjoying the morning dozing off into those extra moments of sleep that all moms can only dream about! When I noticed my son beginning to lean over and whisper things like, "Are you going to sleep forever? Mom, look at the commercial! Hey! Mom! Can we get the extra fruity crazy cereal next time we are at the grocery?"

So, I in the most terrible way slammed back the covers ( if covers can be slammed!) and I marched down to the basement where my husband was relaxing and I began to rant to him about how angry I was that David was interrupting my life! That our son talks too much! That he always wants me to listen to him! That he is so consummed with commercialism!

My husband just starred at me as he is famous for doing because he is the one that never jumps to conclusions, I am. He is the one who always thinks before he speaks, I am not. He allowed me to finish my statements and then watched me march back upstairs without a word. I wonder if he had to regain his composure before he came to offer me godly counsel? I wonder if he thought how many more times will I hear her say things like this before I go to eternity?

All in all, my selfishness and love for control is something that I must approach the throne of grace about so that I do not continually live in this sin. I can not help my 4 year old to understand the concepts of the grace he must offer his sister because of the grace that is offered to us by Christ alone if I am slamming covers and ranting about how David is ruining my life!

I confess that I must be about the confession and repentance of my sin in order to teach and nurture my children in the same way. Because often the sin we see in them is the sin that is prevelant in us.