At the end of my testimony last week
I mentioned that I wanted to talk this week about the struggles of
my son having my rules, my way of life and then having his dad's
rules and his dad's way of life. Something else came up this past
week that I wanted to share because I feel it's so important in
raising a child(ren). It's about another lesson that my son taught
me (I'm learning that my son is wiser than I give him credit for!).
I've always tried to teach Caleb that he needs to respect me (and
all his elders) and not talk to me in a nasty tone of voice or yell
at me. We've had several incidents where he has been punished for
talking back or for yelling at me. Little did I know that children
learn what they live. Well I did know that but it wasn't really
'clicking' in my brain how true that is.
This past week I was in the process of yelling (yes yelling!) at
Caleb because he was yelling at me. I proceeded to ground him from
some of his favorite toys, his Playstation 2, and then made him sit
on the couch and write sentences. I gave him 50 sentences to write
saying I will not yell or talk back.
As he is in the middle of writing his sentences he stops and looks
at me and then the tears start rolling down his face. I asked him
what was wrong. Caleb said, "Mom if you tell me that the Bible wants
me to respect you and that I shouldn't yell at you because God
doesn't want me to act like that then don't you think that God wants
you to respect me and not yell at me?". OUCH! Talk about a kick in
the stomach.
Man when did my son get so smart and wise? At that moment I felt so
hypocritical as a parent it wasn't funny. Immediately I went to
Caleb hugged him and asked his forgiveness for yelling at him. We
prayed and asked God to forgive the both of us for disrespecting one
another and losing our tempers and yelling.
Here I thought I was the parent and supposed to be teaching my son
but once again he taught me a very valuable lesson! It just reminded
me that children really do learn what they live - here I've been
teaching him about the Bible and respect and not yelling but he was
only acting out in they ways that he has been taught.
My goal now is to not have another lesson that an 8 year old taught
me to share next week! I'm aiming at sharing next week about the
difficulties of raising a child that lives two entirely different
lifestyles - mine and his dads.
