Law of Love--Part 2.

Although the Law of Love is pretty straight forward, it gets a little trickier when thinking about it actually applying to parenting or family life. I spent a few months simply noticing my thought and behavior patterns as it related to my children, my husband, and the way I managed the house. This new awareness, of course, brought all kinds of frustration, as I saw the problem for what it was, but lacked the understanding or energy to solve it. 

One day, I simply said to myself: "If I am determined to live the Law of Love, then I must desire it in my soul, and act from that place". I think this attitude made all the difference in the changes working in my family's life. In the past, I have used an "outside in" approach to changing things in our family. I would develop a program, make charts and such, and then watch it slowly fail in one way or another. This time, I am changing myself first, then creating a system to help others make the change as well.


For example: Since our children have to wake up at the crack of dawn to go to school, our "Morning Routine" has become the absolute most dreaded 45 min. of my day. This insanity has been going on for 8 years now. Hmmm...45 min. x 8 years. I don't need a completed math equation get the idea. That's a whole lot of miserable minutes.
When I asked God to show me my false beliefs, here is what I was shown: In order to be a good mother I believe I have to DO a lot for my kids to help them get ready in the morning.  Now, let's get real--if someone had come to me and said this, I never would have believed them. My kids were the problem! The early hour was the problem! My belief could not be the problem! That isn't even something I believe! Well--Remember that scripture--ASK and ye shall RECEIVE? It doesn't work if you ask for your children to change ;( Only if you ask how YOU can change. "By my Spirit ye shall know the truth of ALL things." Yep. Even the truth of morning routines. God SHOWED me my belief every morning as I lived in the situation. Come to think of it, he was probably trying to show me all along. I was just to busy doing things my way to listen.


Because of my false belief, none of my outward efforts to change the atmosphere were working, because my belief was that my kids needed a LOT of help from me in order for me to be a good mom. Long story short: my own false beliefs about motherhood were sabotaging my efforts to effect change. My beliefs were creating my reality. Once I understood my false belief, I asked God to help me change it. Thus began the TRUE CHANGE.


The details of this change will be set forth in the next few posts. For now, I just want to say that it's been quite fun to watch my husband scratching his head over what has happened to the kids. He literally can't believe how different things are. One morning this week, Holly came in our room at 6:40, showered and ready for school, with Meredith trailing behind her, dressed for school with her shoes on. As we laid there in bed listening to our kids happily making their own breakfast, Aaron turned to me and said; "Am I in the right house? Are these OUR children?" Two weeks ago, both Aaron and I had trudge upstairs every morning to DRAG our kids out of bed, or even dress them while they were in a semi-comatose state! We'd be rushing all over the house, looking for shoes, making lunches, waging battles over hair brushing etc. etc. ad nauseum. Now, we don't even go upstairs in the morning. There are no fights, no crazy rushing around, and no teary faces. It's gone from "The Amazing Race" to "Leave it to Beaver". And do ya know what? It feels good to be June.