Learning to let go.

I like to have control over my life. And when I live with four other people (husband and 3 kids) my life is affected by what they do. SOOOOO...I tend to try to control what they do so that my life is how I want it.

I'm learning, slowly learning, to let go. Let go of trying to MAKE them obey, especially. I am realizing that my kids will not learn to make their own decisions if I am forcing them to make the right decisions. Yes they need to be taught, but not in a dictatorship. They need to learn responsibility and consequences. I want them to be happy, which I know comes by making righteous choices. But THEY need to learn that. I am afraid to lose them to "the dark side." But it isn't really up to me what they do.

It is coming out all jumbled on the screen. In my mind I know exactly what I mean! I think what I want to say can be summarized by this prophetic quote: Teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves. It's so hard to let them fall and make mistakes. But in the end, if I don't let them learn now, they will fall harder later. Am I making sense? Thanks for listening!

I know it's been one of those days...

...when the only reason I unload the dishwasher is because my 22 month old son starts unloading it for me. He will unload the entire thing, with or without me. I'd rather it be with me so things get put away! AND he brought me his full laundry basket of dirty clothes, so I washed them. Otherwise, I doubt I ever would have gotten anything done yesterday!

Lice Life Lessons (say that 5 times fast!)

You know, I'm not the only one to learn a lesson from lice. One of my favorite books is The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. It is her story about being a victim of the Holocaust. She learned to be grateful for lice because the guards didn't want lice too, so they stayed away from the prisoners.

My story isn't so compelling, but I learned from it, nonetheless. Last night before bed (just before midnight...) I discovered that I have been reinfested with lice. Or more accurately, for Dad's sake, a louse. Hopefully just one. After a couple arduous hours of combing and shampooing and changing bedding and checking the kids...we discovered that I am the only lucky one. Wahoo. Then, finally came bedtime. At 2:30. Double wahoo.

This comes on the tail end of almost two months of torture at our home. It started, and hopefully will end, with lice infestations. Benjamin went back to school today after a week of sickness. He was sick of it; I am frustrated by all of it. Last night I went to bed praying for answers. "Why? Why me??"

This morning, I have the answer. Make that a few answers. The first answer was that this is teaching me patience in suffering. And gratitude that I can be a stay at home mom and take care of sick kids or just be there for them. Then I thought about making mountains out of molehills. This is suffering? Not really! There are so many people in the world who are so much worse off than me, in health, living conditions, financially...every such way. (Like Corrie ten Boom, for example.)

One last answer to my question of WHY...specifically, why lice? And why twice?? It didn't take long for me to make an important realization: If my kids hadn't brought it home from school 6 weeks ago, I wouldn't have the lice comb and I wouldn't have had any reason to check my hair. I check every so often now. If we hadn't had the first bout with lice, how long would I have gone before checking my hair? Until I had a whole colony living and breeding in my hair? EEEEEW!!!

I am grateful my kids brought home lice last month. I hate to say it. But it's true.