It was so warm last week we actually went to the beach!
Have you ever asked your kids this question? Have you ever wanted to?
I don't understand the logic of children--choices that seem to make perfect sense to them make no sense to me at times.
This frustrates me when things get broken (which seems to happen a lot around here) and when behaviors are far from pleasant.
Here's what is aiding my efforts to be compassionate to my children in these times:
Remembering that I used to do the same things. Specifically, I can recall two (there are undoubtedly more, but these come immediately to mind) really stupid things I did as a child:
- As a young teenager - One night at youth group, some other kids and I took turns running and jumping onto our youth leader's futon...for fun. (Jumping on furniture, as a teenager?! Yes, really.) It just so happened that on one of my jumps one of the futon's wooden parts cracked right down the middle.
- As an older teenager - My mom had given me her class ring from high school. I was so proud of it and loved it, as I had gone to the same high school.
I wore it to the beach one day with friends, and didn't know that you shouldn't wear jewelry into the sea. (How could I not know that?) You can guess where my ring ended up...at the bottom of the ocean.
I walked back to the shore, sobbing, wondering what my mom would say. I called her from the beach, still in tears, and told her.
Do you know what she said?
"Jamie, it's just a ring."
Talk about compassionate grace.
So when we wonder what our kids are thinking, let's try to remember that there were days when we wonder what exactly we were thinking, too.
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