I decided to try an experiment at home. I use the word "No" a lot here at home as I'm sure those of you with children do as well. No, you may not eat 5 cookies before dinner. No, you may not color our walls. No, I don't want to play Candyland for the 10th time. You get the picture. As moms and wives, we have a lot on our plate each day. It's hard to get through our "to do" list and also entertain children in the process. But lately, the Lord has been convicting me of my No's. It got to the point where No was the automatic response. Not because I didn't want to play with him, it's that my mind was spinning of all the things I had to do.
I didn't like where it was heading, so I decided to change my attitude and outlook for a day. Instead of saying No to everything, I said No to only a few things that I really didn't want him to do (if it would destroy my house or was just bad behavior) but said Yes to every request for spending time with me.
If Chris wanted me to read to him, the answer was Yes. I would read books until he was satisfied with that activity... whether it was one book or ten books. I said Yes to every request to play a game with him, whether it was Go Fish or playing with play doh, or my least favorite, finger painting. (I don't like messy activities inside the home).
I thought the day would be hard, but what I found was that we had fun. We laughed and ran around and played hide and seek and there was much joy. It was a great day and I determined in my heart that, although every day can not be like that, I would make an effort to say Yes more often. The laundry and dishes were still waiting, but that's okay. I'll still be doing those things in 20 years, but I won't have a little boy longing for time with his mom then.
So, maybe the next time your child asks you to spend time with you, and you really would rather check something off your "list", say Yes... I bet you'll be glad you did!
These thing have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. John 15:11
2 comments:
Very nice. You kind of shock them when you do say yes! They look at you like, "What did you just say?"
Now, how can we get them to say yes when we ask them to clean their rooms, empty the dishwasher, put the laundry away???
Love the verse! Enjoy the snow!
Love your transparency Beth. And what a great, inspiring reminder.
I heard something similar to this a few years ago: instead of "no running in the house" say, "we need to walk in the house." Children do not have the same capacity to process that adults do. When we say "no" to something they shouldn't be doing, it doesn't necessarily translate to them automatically knowing what they "should" be doing instead.
I'm off to play some games now :-)!!!
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