The Truth of Nothing

A couple of things fell off the wall when he slammed the door. It doesn't happen often but when Kid One does blow up, it's major. In the heat of "battle" he said things to me that were mean. And it hurt. But I knew he didn't mean it because I know his heart. I left him in solitude in his room until I came home from a meeting a couple of hours later.

On the way to and from that meeting I cried, prayed for him, for me as a mom, for his heart, his mind and a million other things. He was acting from a place of woundedness.

I opened the door to his room when I returned. Tears filled his "quickly-turning-into-a-young-man" eyes.
Mom, can I talk to you?
I am so. so. so. sorry for what I did.
And he was visibly repentant.

I put down my coat and purse and took my place on the end of his bed.
Son, there is nothing you can do to make me stop loving you. Nothing you can say. Nothing you can think. Nothing you can throw. Nothing you can slam. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
My unconditional love for him healed his heart. I think he slept better than he had in days.

Our heavenly father is the same with his own children. There is nothing we can do to make him stop loving us. Nothing. We can't act bad enough, miss enough church, participate in enough habitual sin, have weak enough faith, yell enough at our loved ones, or even walk far enough away from the will of God. He loves us. No getting around that.

There is nothing we can do to stop His love for us. Understanding this truth leads to a repentant heart and motivates us to run after him whole-heartedly.

Someone may need to embrace this truth today.
Let your heart be healed by His unconditional love for you.
You.

Winter be gone.

That's it.
I am breaking up with winter.
And the rain...and the "flurries"...and the "munchies." It seems they all go together. The nerve of my pants to shrink just because there is a lack of consistent sunshine!

I used to be a fan of the cold weather because you could make soups, sit by a fire, wear all your cool scarves and snuggle up to watch a movie. But my days of wearing two pair of socks just to keep the blood in my feet circulating are wearing on me.

B'bye winter. Git on out now, y'hear?

And it gives me writer's block. I guess I have run out of things to blog about.

Same Game, Different Kids

For years, when my older boys were small, I would play this little love game with them...

Me: I love you!
Kid: I love you too.
Me: I love you more...
Kid: I love YOU more...
and on and on and on until it got boring.

Funny how different kids can be.

Kid Two was challenging at times (to put it oh-so-mildly). One time after I exercised the discipline of "laying on hands" while I "trained him in the way he should go" I tried the Love Game on him. It went like this:

Me: I love you.
Kid Two: love you too
Me: I love you more...
Kid Two: (...if looks could kill...) You probably do.

Huh.

Just this week I played it with Kid Three, who is generally very agreeable and so easy going. EASY (for now, anyway.) This was his exchange after he tested the lines just a wee little bit:

Me: I love you baby.
Kid Three: I yuv you mommy
Me: I love you more, more, more!
Kid Three: (hesitant) ...Ah-wight.

Same game, different kids. I love the variety of parenting.