Convicted

Yesterday at church, I was handed a book in passing. The woman handed it to me and said "I know you didn't get a chance to go to this Bible study because you had other commitments, but I thought you might be interested in reading through the book." I thanked her, and went on with whatever it was that I was doing. I figured that I would flip through it and see if there were any nuggets I could gather from it. We've been having some anger/tantrum issues with both Gabriel and Graham - they just seem to have been so angry over the past week or so. Since my night was so quiet last night, I was able to get most of my Monday morning housework done before I went to bed, and so this morning, while there is still a lot I could do, I decided to sit down for a bit and read the first day of the Bible study. That's when it hit me. Literally. I am totally floored. The study is called "Creative Correction" and here I am on Day 1 already feeling God's hand in this. Today's lesson was that we as parents are to mirror God's love for our children. That we are models of God's love to them. Then it asked the question "How does your reflection of God look?" I was speechless. Here I have been more concerned with how my children were behaving, and making sure that I was teaching them manners and social skills, and I have been personally neglecting their relationships with God. I guess I was leaving that up to their teachers at church. I had been feeling particularly unsuccessful given the recent rampage of horrible attitudes in my house. At the end of today's lesson it listed a few scripture verses to use when key issues come up like motivation, peer pressure, pride - and the one that convicted me, speaking unkindly. I took a mental inventory of the way that I have been speaking to the boys over the past few days after I read this verse, and my response was "OK, I get it. Thank you Lord, for pointing it out to me, for laying it so heavily on my heart and mind, please forgive me for not showing my children how much you love them by showing them how much I love them, and please help me to live this verse. Amen." The verse? Proverbs 15:1 "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." God is good - all the time!