The High Road

Sometimes you just want to fight back - forget the other cheek thing and just throw a punch, yell and scream, call people names. And most times this feeling comes on when someone you love is the one being hurt. But. . . you don't. You've been taught better. You know better. You want to be better. I'm not used to having this feeling. There haven't been many times in my life when my loved ones and I have been offended and hurt. Today our property was defaced and our beliefs insulted. We suspect, we have no proof, so we do not accuse. It is so hard. So very hard. But in the end, I have nine little people more precious than a car. And I must set the exmaple for them - they are watching closely. I will try to be better, I will try to b strong, and I will walk the high road.

Happiness is. . . found even now.

Quick Slice

I've learned something important this summer. If you lose sight of where your stength comes from, you lose that strength. With so much going on and people constantly coming and going, time has b sporadic to kneel down and say thank you. And I've missed the Spirit and the strength that comes from humility. And admitting the problem is half the battle...

Happiness is. . . realizing your only as strong as you are humble.

Choice of Slices

For some it is all about choices and being allowed to make our own choices. Teaching young children that the choice to be happy or sad is made through all the other choices we make. And through the whisperings of the Spirit I think I may have just had a breakthrough in teaching this to a particular five-year-old who habitually blames me for making her angry, mad, or broken hearted. We had a talk about good and bad choices. I explained to her that happiness comes from good choices. She can't blame anyone, especially me, for her anger and unhappiness on time-out when she made the bad choice that put her there. I could see her thinking about it and taking it all in. Her little mind is sharp enough to understand and follow through the logical results of what I was telling her. I've just got to remind her which choice is the right choice and which choice is the bad choice. Hopefully she will soon understand that she, like all of us, is responsible for the joy or sorrow in her life. It is all about choices.

Happiness is. . . understanding the need to make the right choice.

The Fruit Slice

The scriptures state you may know a person by the fruits of his labor. I was reassured today my labor is bearing good fruit and is therefore good labor. Remember the five year old I was trying to teach to love, today I saw progress. She kicked her brother. Your first thought may be, "Not exactly progress." I asked a witness if it was and accident or on purpose. The five year old, not the witness, spoke up. "It was on purpose." I was dumbfounded. What child, when asked, admits to kicking another on purpose and then follows it with a very sincere apology?
I punished her - it was a bad kick to the face - but I went a little easier on her. I explained that the first step is admitting you did something wrong. The next step is not doing it again. She took her punishment and then went on playing. Maybe, somewhere in her little mind, she realizes the old ways aren't the best ways or the happiest ways.

Happiness is. . . the sweet smell of blossoms on the fruit tree.

Fighting to Love

I never realized it would be so hard to teach a five year old to love. In our house we never use the words, "I hate you." They are so powerful and permanent. Once spoken they can never be taken back. In our house we love each other. At times we may not like what the other is or does, but we always love one another. For a child that has had people in and out of her life and never knowing who they were to her, she loved and was hurt. It is much easier to hate and be safe, then to love and be hurt. I have to change that, and she fights. She fights so hard. It's wearying. But I endure, I have to because I do love her and her siblings, as I love my own.

Happiness is. . . teaching others it's okay to love.

Doing what’s right. . .

One of the hardest parts of doing what's right is sometimes hurting those you love. Another is cleaning up the mess and then being told by those you are cleaning up for you are not doing it correctly. You are trying so hard to follow the Lord's wishes and in your heart you know what you are doing is true, but knowing your going to have to hurt someone because you are doing what's right. Lastly, just when the exhaustion from doing what is right is not enough, the stress from the lectures on how to do it just knock you flat and you wonder - WHY?!?

But watching the changes, however small, as the Spirit slowly changes the lives of those you are helping makes the stress, strain, and exhaustion of it all well worth it.

Divide & Conquer

When dealing with large numbers of children, the best solution is to divide and conquer. There are six home today with rain coming down for the second day in a row. Lunch wrapped up and they quickly got rowdy. I put the youngest two down for their naps (division 1). I left the two boys in the playroom with their trucks and such (division 2). I brought the girls downstairs with their play-do (division 3). And I am now writing this during a much needed sane moment.

Happiness is . . . those few precious sane moments that make it all worth it.