JUST DO WHAT I TELL YOU!

I have three amazing kids aged 2.5, 5 and almost 7. My wife does a great job with the little critters, but the house is constantly in some level of dissaray because everywhere they go they leave a trail of clothes, blankets, legos, army men, shoes, toy guns and snacks. If you could pull the roof off our house I imagine that it would look much like an ant hill with them constantly moving their things from one location to another without any distinguishable sense of order, rhyme or reason. 

Out of my desire to build in them a foundation of discipline that will bleed into every other aspect of their lives, I've picked two or three choice items that I require them to pick up every day after they're done using them. I'm not looking for an immaculate reception after work every day, I just want to see that they're developing a pattern of discipline and basic obedience. 

Its very frustrating to have to tell the same child to pick up the same shoes every single day, only to have him ask me two minutes after we're supposed to have left for his soccer game if I know where his cleats are. In my frustration I say "how many times do I have to tell you to put your shoes away? If you would just do what I keep telling you to do every single day you wouldn't be searching for them now, it would help your momma, and our house would look the way it's supposed to."

It's usually around that time that I start to wonder what I sound like to our Father. How many times have I asked Him for help, guidance, pitty...? How many times has He looked at me and thought "I've told you how to live, how to interact with people, how to spend the time and resources I've given you, how to be still and rest. When are you going to listen and obey rather than repeat the same mistakes?"

That thought shapes the way that I respond when my kids don't act like Marines, or when my Marines act like my kids. Mathew 6:14-15 says "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." Father make me the kind of son that does not continue to frustrate you and the kind of father that displays the grace, love and patience that you've shown me.

JS