24He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.
I don't know if it is because I am sitting here watching all sorts of PBS Kids shows, but I am thinking again of how much competition has been taken out of our children's lives. I don't understand how we are preparing them for life when we remove competition. To me it is part of spoiling our children. We are placed with the wonderful task of gearing our children for surviving life. Whether we are a parent, a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle or a teacher we are blessed with this task. If we don't teach them how to lose properly or how to handle a bad grade, we are not doing them a favor. But we might hurt their feeling! That is part of life and it is our job to make them feel better when this happens. To me it is being lazy when we don't want children to face these problems that way we don't have to deal with it. I had people tell me not to say no to Steven when he was younger. They said I shouldn't teach him that negative word or he didn't understand it. My reply was always that it was my responsibility to teach him how to deal with no and that he wouldn't learn what it meant if I didn't use it. We HAVE to teach our children about competition and how to be Christians while dealing with winning, losing, achieving and failing. We can't go overboard with competition either, don't push them to be the best and forget they are children and need to be children. I know that I am still teaching Steven to deal with highs and lows in his life and will probably never be done. But it is my pleasure to do so. I know they say Autism is a communication disorder, but I feel Steven's is more of a comprehension disorder. Steven can tell me what he wants for the most part, but he doesn't understand why I tell him no to going on vacation or that I can't find his favorite video at Wal Mart. But I have to keep plugging along, I can't know when he might finally understand. We need to start with our children early to teach them to handle let downs. The longer we wait the harder it is for them. But like I said earlier it is also important for them to be children. Just remember to pray for God's guidance in keeping the balance. Of course now I will tell you that there is one thing we absolutely should not be in competition in. We should not compete to be a better Christian than anyone else. We should work to be a better Christian for God and work to help others be better Christians. God's love and Heaven should be the one thing we don't want to try to outdo each other on, but build each other up. Whether it is encouraging, praying or studying together we need to push each other. My New Year's Resolution is to chose at least one person or family to encourage each week. Think about paying it forward with God's love as your resolution. But you know what, if you don't do a resolution (like I usually don't) just try to do good throughout the year to each other.
Take Care and God Bless,
Sherri
Quick family update:
Bryan does NOT need surgery on his thub
I am feeling better than I have in years and am up to doing housework like you wouldn't beieve.
Steven is Steven. He can be doing great and then out of nowhere have a meltdown. He seems to be doing better overall. With the exception that he threw a book up on my mother in laws on Christmas (which we were only there 10 minutes as he didn't want to stay) and we couldn't get it down. He is obsessed with it right now. Replacement on the way it could be a long wait.
Just a picture to hopefully make you smile!
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