Food Fights

No, I don't mean the kind where you throw food. Although that could happen.

Rather, I am referring to the battles that parents MUST win...the kind that go like this:

"I want you to eat one bite of that pancake."

"Waaah!"

"No. You must sit there till you eat one bite."

"Aagggh!"

"One bite. That's it. Then you can get up."

"No! No! No!"

"Too bad. One bite."

I had this kind of battle two times in the past week. One with the three-year-old, which lasted an hour and forty-five minutes. The second one was today with the five-year-old who is almost six. That lasted only forty minutes.

Ever have one of those battles?

I won both of these particular battles because I was more stubborn. I just decided that the particular child I was dealing with was going to sit there until whenever. No limits. Till bedtime if necessary. (Both these battles took place at lunchtime...while Daddy was at work!)

I had to decide, I told my husband later, that I meant what I said. If I said "Eat two bites," then I had to stick that. Otherwise, later on, my children would not believe me when I said something. So that is one of my goals. Mean what I say, and say what I mean.

Would that we would take God at His Word like that! If God is always true, then He means what He says and does not say anything that He does not mean. With that perspective, reading the Bible opens up a whole new level.

Hopefully it doesn't take us as long to obey.

Till next time,
Jeanette