This week has FLOWN by. In fact, the whole summer has! Here we are mid-July and I'm realizing that we only have about 1 month to go before the kids are back in school. I swear, every year it goes by faster. Not just the summer either. Time in general just flies with each passing year.
I'm instilling a new 'program' next week! Remember our weekly Bible verse that we've been doing this summer? Well, I should hang my head in shame because I haven't done too well at updating the verse-of-the-week the past couple of weeks. My desire in doing that with the kids is not only to hide God's word in their hearts but to allow the Holy Spirit to change them from the inside out....especially the way they treat each other. While I LOVE having all three of them home during the summer, it's usually a quick descent from "WooHoo it's summer!" to "Good Lord, how long til I can separate the three of them with school days?". They argue & fight & look for ways to irritate each other from sun up to sun down. Or at least it seems that way. I know every mother of grown children smiles & looks back on the sibling rivalry & would tell me that it'll all turn out fine...that all kids fight & argue a lot. And I know that's the case. Before I know it, they'll be packing up boxes to move to their own apartment or college dorm. They'll be moving out & on their own and I'll look back fondly on these argumentative summers & laugh. But in the meantime, my goal is not to just stand over them & yell and be the monster mommy that I feel like sometimes. My goal in parenting them is not to just say "no" but to have them understand "why" and really GET that.
And so, we're starting a new program of sorts on Monday. I got the idea from one of 2 sources....and I can't remember which it was. It was either from Lynelle Zandstra, mother extraordinaire OR from Lisa Whelchel's book Creative Correction. I've learned a ton from both of these ladies over the years and find myself putting lots of their ideas into action with our kids.
The program we're starting is a Secret Servant program. The idea is like a secret pal system. On Monday, the kids will all draw a name of one of their siblings from a hat. For 1 week, they'll look for ways to serve/help that sibling without being caught. Sneaking in to make their bed while they're in the bathroom....finding a way to do one of their chores for them when they're taking a bath....making their favorite snack & delivering it without being caught. They'll be able to think up fun ways to do sweet things for each other and they'll be on the look out for ways that their Secret Servant is helping them! It's a win-win situation! I told them about it today & they all got excited and started verbalizing different ways they plan to serve their siblings. I loved that conversation!!! At the end of 1 week, they'll be able to reveal their identity & THANK their servant for all the kind things that were done for them. We'll re-draw names each Monday til each of the kids has had each of the others...and we will keep going if they want to. (crossing my fingers)
And so, we're on the verge (I hope!) of something that will really change their relationships. I can't wait to see how it plays out!
10 years ago
2 comments:
I wonder how you could implement something like that with only 2 children??
Sure you can! Add you & Clark into the hat and everyone can look for fun ways to serve each other. Only "fix" the drawing...have the girls get each other!! :)
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