Well,so I am reading Unglued, by Lysa Terkeurst. (In case you haven't seen me raving about it on facebook). This book has me nailed down to a TEE. It's all about learning to control your emotions and feelings so that you don't begin to ACT like a raving lunatic and embarrass yourself, and hurt those around you (both of which I am VERY prone to doing). I'm learning that I have quite the process ahead of me, but that I can change, and learn to exercise grace, peace, gentleness and self control... with a little help.
One of her chapters in her books mentions an illustration about being "That Mom". To quote her (pg. 70) she says, "You know, the one who.... joyfully reads aloud to her children without being sneaky and skipping pages. Yes, Her." She talks about our inner dialog and guilt trips we give ourselves as moms and wives. And labels that damage our self esteem and relationships with God and others- especially our husbands and kids. For me, my inner voice says, "You're not the mom who... keeps the house clean enough, reads to/plays games with/ spends enough time with her kids... has kids who are ALWAYS well behaved, well mannered, and clean; and who make all A's. Or for that matter, has ANY CLUE about what constitutes a good mom."
Well between browsing Pinterest last night, (Who knew banana peels rubbed on teeth makes a GREAT teeth whitener, and washing my towels in vinegar will get rid of the mildew smell? Those are your bonus tips for the day); I encountered an article that a friend had pinned, and it said, "Ten Manners Your Kids should Know before Age 5". It was like a car wreck that I couldn't pull myself away from watching. I HAD to click on it to see if I had measured up as a mom up to this point of my kids' lives. I was developing a pit in my stomach just thinking about opening the link. Dread filled my thoughts,and then it dawned on me. I was sticking a label on myself before I even clicked on the link. I realized what Lysa had been talking about in her book about not measuring up to "That Mom". And while my uber-slow computer opened the link, I was able to think through it, and say, "You know what, if my kids are not all on, on all ten points, it's OK. I'm still a good mom. I'm not going to listen to the enemy and beat myself up, no matter what this article says. My kids are sweet, compassionate, fun, funny, happy and loving. And, like I tell them every night, I'm proud of them, and God is too." And, like Lysa quotes "The Help" in the book, I told myself, "'You is kind. You is smart. You is important.'" This was a little victory in my day. YAY! It puts me in a much better mood!
By the way, I was happy to find that my kids have at least quasi-mastered the ten manners. And I am proud of that. Now, maybe I should go whiten my teeth. But I might use my whitening kit instead of the banana peel. Unless one of you wants to pin a better method on my pinterest board.
