Sunday morning Turner had a meltdown.  He loves going to church but he can’t stand being in the kindergarten room for 3-1/2 hours.  I don’t blame him.  He is in school all week, we are in Freedom’s Gift practice Saturdays and Sundays which leaves Turner without his parents undivided attention alot-ALOT!  I don’t like this. I initially dropped out of the production because of Turner but was asked to come back because someone had to drop. 

When it was time to get ready for church the other morning, Turner was standing in the corner of his room on his bed with his hands in his jammies saying, “I don’t want to go it is too long!”  I had to stop and think for a minute.  My son is trying to tell me something.  He is saying, “I need you, I miss you and I don’t want to do this anymore.”  He was defiant in getting dressed and made it very clear he was not going to obey me.

Which way do I go with this situation? I could discipline him for disobeying me and make him get dressed with force.  Not a good option.  God spoke to me so quickly. He made me realize that my action at this point could dictate his view of church and how he could possibly feel about God later. 

I said to him, “Turner, it is a long time in class.  I realize we are really busy and that you want our time and I am sorry that it has been this way.  I need your help today Turner.  I promised Brian I would be at church to help.  I will see what I can do about next Sunday.  Can you get dressed and help mommy today?”  He hugged me and got dressed. 

The important thing is that children need to be listened to.  Even when we are in a hurry and don’t have time to deal with getting our children dressed.  In their young hearts, they are still learning how to deal with their own feelings and how to express themselves.  When we respond in a way that acknowledges their feelings, speak to them with understanding and explain in simple ways for them to grasp, the situation can be resolved quickly. 

Here is the cool thing.  I do not have to be at Kingdom Kids because the director took care of it.  Next year Turner will be in the class and he will love big group.  I think the most important lesson to learn from this is to never sacrifice your family on the alter of church ministry. God gave me the responsibilty to minister to my family first.  We are to be involved in church ministry but not to the extent that it could harm the spiritual growth our child.

Our home has become invaded by Hannah Montana.  I am sure others can relate!  I really wanted to make sure that there was some sort of Christian view on this show and this was the site I found. The site is from Focus on the Family! Yeah… Just click the pluggedin photo to go to the site. I guess Hannah Montana will continue infiltrating the home after reading the review.  I really like this show so I was glad to see that the review was so good!

Turner comes up the silliest stuff.  I wish I would have been documenting everything from the time this comic genius started talking but I guess now is a better time than ever.

We ran out of toothpaste and Taylor said she really liked ours.  Good thing cause it gets so expensive buying the “fun” paste.  Seems like Turner is always playing with it and swirling it on the mirror like its paint or something!

Anyhow, we were at the bus stop this morning and Taylor was talking about how white our toothpaste makes her teeth(they probably look whiter cause she got her teeth cleaned last week). 

So Turner walks up to her and says, “Let me see sissy.” 

Taylor says, “look-don’t they look white?”

Tuner says,  “No, they look rusty”

I nearly bust a gut! 

Taylor had a friend stay over last night.  Turner just loves it when Brianna comes to stay the night(maybe he has a little crush on her, how cute).  So this morning while making breakfast, I heard Turner at the top of the stairs saying, “Brianna, here is my Daddy’s underwear”.  Okay, big deal or not I don’t really want Turner parading around the house twisting Jim’s underwear around his finger like a flag(especially if he got it out of the laundry basket) EEEWWWW.  

Anyhow, I told Turner to come downstairs and asked him what he was doing.  He was mortified at this point.  Okay, at this point I knew that he knew what he had done was inappropriate by the look on his face.  But now was a chance once again to learn about trust.  I asked him, “You need to tell me what you were doing upstairs”.  He was crying and saying he was so scared I would be mad at him.  I set him up on the counter, put my hands on each cheek and softly said, “I love you honey, you need to trust mommy and know that you can tell me anything.  If I am ever upset by something you have done, I always love you.  Trust me with all your heart”

You see, this was an opportunity for me, as a parent to discern what was more important-sending him to time-out or teaching about trust.  He already knew what he shouldn’t have done.  I got a chance for him to trust me, even when he was in trouble.  God wants us to trust him the same way.  Take everything to him, he will teach us, help us comfort us, and most of all he will always love us.

So he told me what he had done, told me he was sorry and that he would never do it again.  I told him I was proud of him for his honesty and that it must be hard to be truthful even when you do something wrong.  I trust that he will not parade around the house with Jim’s underwear. 

Grab these types of opportunities to teach trust because when they are in their teens, trusting your parents is so important!