Repent, Seek Forgiveness, and Find Restoration

We've been working on our children's vices and my eldest's vice is like her mommy's, yelling. Well, yesterday I had a talk with the girls at breakfast. We talked about how we were created to worship God and that His 2 greatest commandments is to love God and to love others. I noted that the Bible never tells us to love ourselves because we do that so easily, but we are constantly reminded in the Bible to practice loving God and loving others. I also pointed out that by loving others we are worshiping God. I wanted to discuss this with the girls because Gracelyn yells at her sisters when she does not get her way and I wanted her to understand that she is not loving them when she yells. The very first time I heard Gracelyn yell yesterday, I called her over and I told her that it's easy to tell when she's yelling because she can hear herself getting louder. I told her that at the moment she hears herself yelling she needs to stop, walk away, find a quiet corner, ask God for forgiveness, then ask God to help her to not yell, go back to whomever she was yelling at and ask for forgiveness, and then speak to that person with kind words. I told my husband what we did and he liked that idea for Gracelyn and he wanted to reward her for attempting to practice that. We spoke with her at dinner time and acknowledged that it is hard not to sin, but if she can practice seeking repentance, forgiveness, and restoration, in one week she can get a date with Daddy as a reward. Even though the practice might be mechanical at first, if we continue to practice this with all of our sins, hopefully it will become a part of us, that is to repent, seek forgiveness, and find restoration.

As I have coached Gracelyn how to deal with her sin, it has helped me know how to deal with my own sin. I had not yelled at the girls for 2 days, but last night I finally got to the straw that broke my patience and I yelled at the girls and at my husband. I got to that moment where I had to choose to keep on yelling or to stop. I stood in my kitchen wanting to yell to release my "wrath" and the anger kept welling up. It took me a few minutes to calm myself down but I knew that I just needed to get away from the situation. I calmly told my husband that I needed to go out for a drive. I got myself a Starbuck's coffee and on the way home I asked for God's forgiveness and His help, just as I instructed Gracelyn earlier in the day. When I got home, I humbly went to Ty (the girls were already in bed), and asked for his forgiveness. We restored our relationship and then we were able to talk kindly with one another.