Untitled by Reid Garnett

In attempts to teach some work ethics and the power of choice and consequences around this joint, I've started having the girls clean there room in the mornings before they can go outside to play.

It's gone pretty well, but this morning has been a different story.

They are currently IN THEIR ROOM UNTIL IT'S CLEAN.

And although they have pulled the mattress off of Em's bed and about every toy out of the closet and are presently laughing their heads off while practicing their aerobatics...

I've chosen to be cool as a cucumber.

No power struggles today. I know some natural consequences like

rumbly, hungry tummies or a neighbor friend knocking on the door wanting to play will eventually kick their motivation into gear.

Anywho, different post for a different day.

But, before the aerobatics began and I'd first asked the girls to clean there room, Em kept saying, "Mom....you've gotta help us! We can't do this ourselves!"

And I found myself saying, "Em, I am helping you. I'm helping you to help yourself."

And after sending her disappointed self back into her room with some, 'I know you can do it's' and 'I believe in you's' knowing she probably wouldn't understand the lesson for years to come, I continued my own chores for the day when these thoughts started rumbling around inside.....

You know it's just like Heavenly Father.

We cry out in despair,

'You've gotta help us! We can't do this on our own!'

And although I have had many of those kinds of prayers answered in help beyond my own....

sometimes He answers by patting us on the back and sending us back out into the fight.

~But oh the love in those pats.~

We say, 'We want it easy! We don't want to have to reach and stretch outside ourselves. We don't want to have to fight and sweat and labor for the answers.'

But our Heavenly Father knows all we can become.

He knows how far we can stretch and reach and grow.

He knows.

And because our infant eyes don't see that far yet....

He will rarely go easy on us.

Until one day we do see.

And we thank Him and thank Him and thank Him.