This past weekend, my family and I traveled to several hours south to attend the wedding of Ben's college roommate. We booked our stay at a FABULOUS resort and spa in hopes that the kids and I could do a little swimming and playing while Ben was off doing his groomsmenly duties.
While we did have quite a good time swimming in the luxury pool, playing on the playscape, and walking through the nature trails, we forgot one minor detail - checkout time was 1:00 sharp.
Ordinarily, no big deal - but the wedding wasn't scheduled until 6:30 and Ben had to be at the site of the wedding (which was literally in the middle of nowhere) at 3. What in the world was I suppose to do with two babies for three and a half hours in the blazing hot sun? The pool was closed to set up for the reception, the clubhouse was closed for the cocktail party and pictures, the nearest town (or any civilization for that matter was 45 minutes away), and the outdoors were off limits because it was the sight of the wedding.
So where does the helpful hint come in?
Let me explain...
My children are nowhere near perfect. They are sinners who by the will of God will be saved by grace one glorious day. They make mistakes every day (well, every minute sometimes), and I make mistakes right along with them. I am, however, trying my hardest to raise young girls who will become strong women ready to champion the cause of Christ. Ben and I have committed to disciplining them in the way we feel lines up with the Bible, and we have learned A LOT in the two and a half years we have been doing this thing called parenting.
So during the nearly four hours of screaming baby time, I had quite a few moments to think. And it occurred to me to start a tradition here in this blog-o-community of mine - Helpful Hint Tuesday. A post devoted once a week to passing on a helpful hint I have accumulated along this journey of discipline. All of these are stolen, errr, I mean completely original ideas of mine.
Lets begin with one that I learned this weekend....
Grace must be given to a child when a parent has put a child's schedule on the back burner. Lets elaborate...
Checkout time was 1:00, the wedding was at 6:30, but we didn't get into the car until 9:30pm. Needless to say, my kids missed their afternoon nap, to say the least. While typically I have no problem when I say, "Ellie Kate, come to mommy," she wouldn't obey this command or other simple ones that she hasn't defied in a long time. It occurred to me several times, that she never even heard me. She was so past tired her simply senses weren't working.
Isn't that how we as adults are too? We have difficulty performing simple tasks when we haven't had enough sleep. Just visit any youth camp for evidence of this...
So in conclusion, I learned this weekend that while disobedience must not be ignored at any moment, grace must also be a part of any day that nap time has been neglected - be it an afternoon grocery shopping trip, a family vacation, any holiday, or insert your own specific circumstance here.
I also learned that I will always attempt to let me kiddos get their afternoon naps. It sure does make life easier!
1 comment:
Good thing you had a helpful mother-in-law along for all the fun! :)
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