free

 

I keep waiting for someone to give me the handbook on all things mom. Something that says, “When this happens, just do this.” I feel like my mom has one, and I never got a copy. I was thinking about it today when I got caught in this predicament. Clinton was sitting at the table coloring. He got up to get a drink and Moses moved into his seat. Clinton cried. Moses said, “He got up!” 

Ok. In my house, the phrase, “Always consider others more important than yourself,” is repeated like a mantra. Also “move your feet, lose your seat.” When Clinton cried, (please don’t judge me harshly for getting in my feelings over the littlest one) I realized that I’m promoting to opposing positions. Give everything away, and take what you can get. I can’t reconcile this. Double-standards haunt my dreams. 

“Don’t repeat words you hear me say on a daily basis.” 

“Don’t make fun of people even if I’m laughing.”

“Work hard and serve others. Also ask someone else to help you, besides me.”

“Don’t have a bad attitude and ruin everyone else’s day. Also give me extra grace when I have a bad attitude.”

 There is a real war here, between dictating and modeling the kids of virtues I want them to have. It trips me up sometimes. But thanks be to God, i am not a slave to guilt or shame. There is grace for me and even more grace for them in my short-comings. That is real freedom.

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5:1‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

https://www.bible.com/bible/100/gal.5.1.nasb1995