Last night AJ went to bed post tantrum because he did not eat chips yesterday. Somewhere in the recent past he decided that he HAD to eat chips EVERY day. And he ALWAYS has to eat chips in front of the TV. I could see this habit starting but when I see it, it usually is already a habit. ie: Too late. And by habit I mean compulsion/obsession. It wasn't like he was trying to 'get' chips at 11 pm. He NEEDED chips at 11 pm. We actually got through the night without chips.
So the first thing I was going to talk about was routines. In schools they have routines. Routines are good...right? Except when they don't go according to plan, which, lets face it, is about 80% of the time. Yet routines and schedules can help the day flow better. I struggle with that. When we go willy nilly so little gets done. Yet if I have a plan for the day and show it to AJ, then we MUST work the plan. That is OK for most but when I say MUST..I mean 100%. I have lots of ways around this and I will share those in another post.
So fast forward to a few minutes ago. I told AJ that we were going to leave in an hour and that he could watch TV..and...have chips. As he was down in the basement grabbing a bag of chips (thank you Grandma for our steady supply of small chip bags from Sams club).. he says, "I don't think I need chips every day." and THEN... "Did God give me the strength to say that?"
I just love that on so many levels. First he was giving the credit to God. Second he was leaning on God. And his heart is right with God. And he is LISTENING. I just heart my kid...and I heart God. He is good. All the time.
The other thing that is important is that he SPOKE this and his ears heard it. His natural/mechanical ear (cochlear implant) and his heart ears. I think speaking is important. Speaking...out loud. I have been listening to various preachers and they are all saying the same thing (or at least that is what I am hearing). You must say it out loud. (The teachers I am listening to include Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer and John Paul Jackson..to name just three.)
Faith and fear are opposite sides of the same thing. Faith is believing that something good will happen. Fear is believing something bad will happen. So why choose the fear side? And when we say things OUT LOUD it penetrates and it builds our faith. We can listen to uplifting things but I heard Joyce say recently that we believe what we say ourselves out loud more than anything anyone else says. I just said out loud, "I'm tired." Well I am and I am not going to say, "I am awake and alert." But I COULD say, "God gives me the strength I need today and in Him I can do the next thing with peace and joy." AJ spoke it out loud regarding the chips and it gave more power to it! I could then also hear it and affirm it. We don't need to lie to God (as if that is possible) but we can choose to direct our thoughts and words toward a positive end and let faith take over.
It is a process....
1 comment:
Wow! This is like when Pamela gave up the sacred hour and started desensitizing herself to balloons. When they begin to let go some of their ingrained habits on their own, it builds a mental architecture for more flexibility.
Praise God that Andrew "heard" God speaking to him about chips.
I thought about you today while we were reading about Alexander Graham Bell. Did you know that before sign language there was an alternate form of finger spelling? He gave a deaf boy a glove with the letters of the alphabet all over it. The boy pointed to the letters to spell what he wanted to say and then read the letters Alexander was using to spell words. Cool, huh?
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