Monday, October 30, 2006

God feels the same way

I've been struggling lately with encouraging a positive attitude in my dear daughter when it comes to cleaning. Occasionally, when I ask her to pick up some toys or her room, she is cheerful and just says, "Ok, mom!" Occasionally. Most of the time there is sighing, sometimes crying, and always some comment about her legs cracking/breaking/crumbling or her being "too tired". She does end up doing what I ask, but not with a joyful spirit. Tonight, after Rick put her to bed, he said, "I just don't know what to do with THAT one. I mean, that BEHAVIOR. It's almost driving me nuts!" And I replied by saying, "I bet sometimes God feels the same way about us." (If you reread his words from God's perspective, you'll see what I mean.) Good to remember when dealing with our little blessings!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is so funny!!
That girl, I swear I could kiss her for hours! She so sweet!
Love, skyra

Anonymous said...

Ok...so I have been using a technique lately with my "cherubs" to get them in the mood of cleaning up their toys. I don't know if this will work for you but I think that for my girls the thought of cleaning up what seems to be a HUGE mess is overwhelming...so I tell them. K1 you need to pick up 25 toys, K2 you need to pick up 25 toys etc.(I scan the room to see what number would seem reasonable with the amount of mess), and K3 gets a smaller amount in more trips. If there are still toys left I give them a different number until they have put them all away. For some reason it works!!!! I think that the counting(one of their favorite things to do)motivates them as well as knowing that there is an end to the cleaning. This is nothing profound but I thought I would share.

HTH

Erin

Rebecca said...

Oh, thank you so much Erin. I am open to any suggestions. It's kinda hard because Sienna makes so many messes that usually Tati & I end up cleaning up. I am trying to catch Sienna & have her clean up before she moves on to something else. I think I am going to also start Scripture memorization (in the area of working joyfully). Hopefully this will help too. I like the counting thing though too! TFS!

Anonymous said...

I our house we have implemented the 5 minute clean up that has worked for us! I give the kids a room and say ok the timer is set 5 minutes go!! and then if they haven't gotten the room done yet (which normally it is) but they just ask if I can reset it and then they keep at it! Then when they get one room done they each get three m & m's not much to get them high on sugar but enough to give them incentive! then we go at it again with the next room! usually just two rooms need to be done, and we usually do this in the morning before lunch and in the afernoon before dinner! hope you find something that works for you! oh by the way we are working on teamwork so talking about that has seemed to help in even other others that aren't cleaning, they also get a kick out of singing the teamwork song!! I like your idea of doing scripture though too!! maybe do a military chant to one while your working!! :0)