"Mama, please don't exasperate me!!!"

"MOTHER you are exasperating me!!!!!" That's my daughter's new catch phrase I guess. See, we have been talking about relationships in church and last week Greg preached on the parent/child relationship. And SURE enough in Colossians 3:21 it says

"Fathers (parents) do not exasperate your children so that they will not lose heart."

Okay, it says it.. don't exasperate, upset, make mad, provoke, be hard... however you want to say it, it says it there and we have to do it so that they don't lose heart. So now every time I open my mouth, the child says it. Now she is doing it as a joke cause she KNOWS better, and I tell her every time.. maybe you should read the WHOLE section on children obeying your parent.. etc.. she laughs and ignores me then.

But I have been thinking about that alot. I think I have, no I know I have exasperated my children before. I do think there is a fine line between making sure your child is doing right, and going a little over board. I have gone overboard before and that's not good. The last thing I or we as parents want is to run our children down, discourage them so that their spirit is broken.

So joke or not, when she says it, maybe I need to think about it before I say or do it. Raising children today is not easy and there are gonna be days when they really work your nerves, but we have to remember that although they are the kids and need to do what we say, we need to be making sure that we do it lovingly (as hard as that can be sometimes) and that we pray and ask God for guidance before making any harsh and rash decisions that could harm them not physically but emotionally for the rest of their lives.

I hope you all have a great weekend. I am leaving town today and Lord willing, will be back on Sunday night. So I probably won't send an e-mail out tomorrow.... until Monday... love ya!