Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Patience-Teaching the Waiting Game and Why?

Patience is a virtue.
One that I really stink at.

WHY?

Why is patience so important?
Why should we teach our kids?

Because we want them to wait to have dessert after dinner?
Or to wait till their Birthday to open the gift?

Hmmm...

Kinda important, but not a spirit lesson,
or is it?

This is something seemingly small .
So parents let it slide, this patience teaching thing.

Why is this a bigger deal than dessert?


When we teach our kids patience, we give them LIFE SKILLS.

Crucial LIFE SKILLS.


 I leave our Mom's Shop stuff in plain view all week, and let them STRUGGLE with the wanting of the goodies, but not being able to have them yet.
Not because I'm mean (well, I can be).
But because it's BIGGER.


Often times I'll set a cup of juice on the table prior to putting dinner on the table.
WHY?
It's certainly not because I want to yell ask them a million times to not drink it.

It's certainly not because I like cleaning up spilled juice from sneaky fingers.

I don't LIKE to pick a fight with my kids.

But there are moments we need to set them up to make a choice.
To set 'em up in a safe environment to learn the lesson of patience.

You see, I don't REALLY care if they had some juice before their meal.



Let's fast foreword 5,10, 20 years.

I DO care if they WAIT to have sex until marriage.


But I DO care if they WAIT till money is in their bank account before they buy their groceries.



I DO care if they WAIT to buy something they really want by saving cash rather than getting now on a credit card.


I do care if they choose to WAIT till I pick them up from a party where there is drinking, when all their friends are leaving now, together.


There is a lot more to teaching our kids patience than meets the eye.
It's character building.
It teachers them that no matter how much they want it NOW,
they will be blessed when they choose to WAIT.

Now if only I could teach myself to wait till after lunch to eat that cupcake...


 Linking up with:

 Raising Homemakers


God Bless,
Mandy

5 comments:

Mrs. Stam said...

What a beautiful post! I agree Waiting is a life skills the need to be taught while they are young.

For me I find the "Waiting upon the Lord" And "Be still" are lesson that I still need to learn, and as I grow I pray that our little one will learn that lesson too :-)

Sweet Apron said...

Patience is the most difficult thing for me to learn, too. I do need to remember that the life I model now will pay its dividends in 5, 10, 20 years...Thanks!!

~*~ saskia ~*~ said...

A lovely post, your little ones are adorable! Happy day xx

Anonymous said...

Mandy, I love reading your blog... Aunt Sandie

Treasures from a shoebox said...

I'm quite guilty of setting mine up as well. :) Since some of mine are now older (I have 10 children ages 14 months up to 26 years), I can now see some fruit from teaching them to be patient. Thanks for sharing!

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