Accomplishment

I am bursting with pride.

Emma folded her clothes without being asked. Perfectly. Quietly. Diligently. And then she put them away. All without being asked to do so.

As a mom who is home with my kids 24/7, I often feel like I am spinning my wheels. Time doesn't really fly when I am reprimanding, enforcing rules, training, and teaching. I say "no" and discipline many times per day. I fail and I lose my temper. Most the time I wonder if I am doing any good at all, but I trudge on, remembering that training these children is my highest calling; a privilege and a command from God. He would not have given me this challenge if he could not equip me to do it well.

Proverbs 22:6 - Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 1:8 - Sons (and daughters) should hear the instruction of their fathers and not forsake the law of their mothers.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 - These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door-frames of your houses and your gates.

I am encouraged by the small things. I cherish hearing, "I'm sorry, next time I obey," from Emma and seeing Mandy, even at one year old, turn away from her biggest temptation, the Christmas tree. And today I was humbled when I walked into Emma's room to prod her into getting dressed (like I told her to do 15 minutes previously) and found her folding her clothes.

With charming improper grammar she said, "I not could find any clothes to wear. So I need to fold them first."

The clothes that were strewn across her room were now neatly folded on her bed. I was in total disbelief, remembering all the times we fought about cleaning up her clothes, her messy room always being an issue. Discipline was always necessary to get her to do anything. And then she decided today to do it herself. Of course I exclaimed at her fine work and she brimmed with satisfaction. She said, "I do a good job folding clothes." The pride she had in her accomplishment was surely worth all the hours I've spent teaching, training, reprimanding, and disciplining. Very worth it.