Toys. They are EVERYWHERE!!

I struggled finding a topic that inspired me today and tossed around ideas with my friend Amanda over at A Sweet Serenity. Can it really be this hard when I am the kind of person who ALWAYS has something to say?

As usual, Amanda and I talked about our girls during the day. We text a lot since children ALWAYS need something when you are on the phone. We talked about how much they are growing, the adorable things they are doing, and the ways that they are testing our parenting skills. *twitchy eye* Doesn't it seem like they are continuously finding new ways to be delightfully devious and test us? Today was no exception at my house. If your kids are anything like mine, it is a constant battle to get them to keep their room clean. I would love if their room would stay clean enough so you could see the floor. I dream at night about rooms that are actually categorizable as "neat and tidy". I'm doubting that will ever happen, especially because my husband and I are rotten housekeepers. (I can't take ALL of the blame, folks!) So today I sent Kirsten to her room to clean up a portion of it. You couldn't even see the floor, so I knew this would be a task to spread out over the next few days to keep from overwhelming her. First, I explained to her that she needs to keep her toys in the proper bins and her clothes in her dresser so we could find them when we need them, as well as not get hurt when we ventured into their room. Second, I sectioned off a small portion of her room like I always do and told her clean up the items in that area. I set the egg timer for thirty minutes and told her that if she did not have it cleaned by the time it went off, she would lose her tv privileges for the rest of the day. I also told her that throwing a fit of any kind or complaining about her task would result in me deducting one minute per complaint. She did quite well and didn't complain once, so I secretly gave her about fifteen minutes more because we all know how slow five year olds are. ;)

It wasn't until I was making supper that I knew what I would write about today. How many times have we wondered as Christians why there seems to be a never ending list of things that God needs to change in us? Why does He not change all of these things at once, say: the day we give our lives to Him?! Because, just like my five year old will cry and moan and scream, "It's too much! I can't do it! It will kill me!" we would be so overwhelmed that we would give up. Give up on God, give up on ourselves. He truly knows that parenting is hard. He parents adults. That must be WORLDS harder than parenting children! So He sets clear boundaries in the areas that we need to work on. He encourages us and lets us know that there will be consequences if we continue to make the choices we have thus far. He knows exactly when to reveal the things we need to fix in our lives to keep us from losing it. I am so grateful for a God who is a better parent than I am. I want to be like Him in every way. ❤