James 1:5 (in the Bible) says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."
As a single mother with four kids there is rarely a day that passes that I do not face a situation that reminds me I am totally in over my head and winging this whole endeavortoday was not an exception. I allowed my two sons ages four and six to spend the nite at a friends house. These are people I have known for years should be simple and uneventful enough, right? HA, thats what I thought. This morning when I went to pick them up, they were nowhere to be found. A teenager left to care for the boys suggested they may be at Turkey Hill (very nonchallantly at that)
Lets stop there, they are four and six and the boy they are with is only 8. Turkey Hill is located on Stoney Battery Road, a very busy and high traffic area. At this point I am furious, yet overriding this is concern for the safety of my children. I drive to the Turkey Hill, and ask the attendant if she had seen them, infact she has, but not for close to an hour. She mentions they had been playing around down there a couple of times today, but had not seen them in a while. I am ready to throw up. I begin driving around the neighborhood looking for them ( I realized I was so worried and was driving so fast I would have mssed them even if they were to be seenooops) I am praying, praying for their safety from vehicles, pedophiles and for my reputation as a mother, someone could spot my children unattended and report this and I could be charged with neglect
The whole ordeal lasted only 10-15 minutes, at which point I did find them at my uncles house, who lives in the same neighborhoodbut it felt like a lifetime. Now, they are safe, they are with me and I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THEM. The thought of spanking continuously throughout the day, breaking only to rest my arms, crossed my mind. I considered grounding them, making them write sentences, putting them to bed for the dayyou name it, I considered it for atleast a second. Finally, I prayed for wisdom.I believed by the time I arrived home, I would have my answer and would follow thru with it accordingly.
Getting home.when I left to pick them up, I had already been driving on what I call fumes of faithand had been since Sundaynot too concerned as Wednesday morning is gas dayI go to get them. With the extra driving and sitting and waiting and the car running while I search for them.I run out of gas 1/2 mile from my house. I know when I was a kid the LAST thing I would have wanted while my punishingment was being pondered, was for my dad to run out of gas..We got out of the car and walked home to borrow a gas tank thingie. As we walked wisdom arrives. If my boys wanna walk so much, that is just what they are going to spend their day doing. I get the girls home and tell them to take a dip in the pool and get the boys to work pacing the yard from one end to the other. I have myself a moment of sanity renewal (aka Newport) and borrow a gas can from the neighbor.
Not only do my boys apparently enjoy walking so much, but now I am out of gas and have to walk to the gas station, get gas and carry it back to the vanguess whatif I have to do it so do they. I fill up two buckets of water (according to each childs ability) and we are on our way. They carried those buckets, (M had the audacity to whine I definitely considered reverting back to the spanking marathon every time I heard his voice) , but F remained very silent, not complaining once all the way to get gas and to the van.
I should have prayed for more wisdom, because upon arriving at my car, I couldnt figure out how to get the gas from the can to the carI had to play cute damsel in distress all that wisdom must have puffed up my pride and I had to be taken down a few notches by asking a MAN for help(in my defense everytime I tried to get it in the car it spilled all over me, I had no choice).
The car starts and we are on our way. When we get home the pacing of the yard was resumedI have since allowed them to stop and we had a nice heart to heart. My son F told me when I picked them up that he knew if mommy saw him on those roads (turned out they also walked a stretch of Route 23..he proudly added they stayed beside the line) that he would be in trouble. When I explained that because he knew to do right and chose not to that he was accountable and his conscience was speaking to him, he said wiselySo thats why my stomach hurt so bad when we were waking
If you need wisdom ASK. And if it doesnt look like the norm, in my case spanking or time out.trust it anyway. James 1:6 goes on to sayBut when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
You asked for it, now believe you have received it.
I know how you guys like to leave encouraging comments with my blogsthis time, with the time and energy it would take to do thatdo me a favor insteadPray for wisdom for yourself, for me, for other parentsanyone who may need it (and who doesnt?) and thank God for protecting my sonsmany mothers have had a day like today, a day that started out like any other.and hers didnt turn out like mine. Pray for those mommies too.