Patience - Part 1

I feel like this is going to be a multiple part series, so here you go, Part 1.

 Have you ever said "When God was handing out _______ I was in the bathroom"? My blank is PATIENCE.

With everything that has happened in my life over the last year I'm pretty sure God stood in Heaven looking down on me, hands on hips and shaking his head saying "Girl, you have got to calm down, relax, and have some PATIENCE!" God has a lot of work to do in me on this one.

Nothing requires patience quite like parenthood does. You have to wait for 9 months to even see the little angel.  Then you are waiting for them to smile, roll over, sit up, crawl, walk, talk. Then once they do all of those things they spend the next 15 years trying your patience. Parenting is patience so when you don't have a lot of it, it can be a struggle.

There is nothing worse than seeing your own short comings mirrored in your child. You want to help them, the last thing you want is for them to ever struggle, hurt or be frustrated.  I know that a life of impatience is maddening (and can get you into trouble a good bit). Not to mention how hypocritical is it to say "be patient" to your little one when you aren't capable of it yourself. And to add insult to injury, where do you think he learned the impatience from to start with?

My Little Man is 3, almost 4 (and yes, it's true, 3 is worse than 2). He was really struggling with patience. When he didn't get his way he would throw a HUGE fit, screaming, crying, throwing things.  It would last for a long time.  It got to the point that he was having to go to the office several times a day, EVERY day at daycare.  Nothing hurts your heart more than thinking you have a "bad" kid, seeing a life of detention in your future. I had tried all of the reward/consequence programs I could think of and nothing was working, and of course since I am an impatient perfectionist this bothered me that I couldn't find the right answer.

Here's a surprise, MY way didn't work because I needed to do it GOD's way *facepalm*. I started to pray for him.  I prayed that he would find peace and not get upset. I prayed that God would touch his heart and head so that he would obey with a good heart, "right away, all the way, with a good attitude"as they say at his daycare. Then somewhere along the way my prayers for Little Man turned into prayers for me. I prayed that God would give me the right words to help Little Man.  That he would give ME the patience to be able to help him control his temper. That he would help me so that I could help him.

Pretty quickly I noticed a difference in how I interacted with him. When he was upset I was able to stay calm. I was able to stay relaxed and pretty soon I was able to talk him through calming himself down. "Take a deep breath, calm down, use your words and talk to me." His behavior at home is better.  He is having more and more days when he doesn't go to the office at daycare, and when he does they've told me that he calms down much faster than before. Last week he even got a good note for having such a great week at day care, he was so proud.

I am so thankful that God did the work in me so that I could show Little Man what calm and patience looks like. I'm so grateful that God has enough patience to stick with me until I finally get it. I will continue to pray daily that God will continue to touch our hearts and minds so that we can work though problems without anger and frustration. It is amazing what you can accomplish when you slow down ask God for his help and listen when he answers.