Daddy Tried

Being a successful career Army man, my Dad was very disciplined and wanted us children, me and my three brothers, to be disciplined as well.  He thought that our rooms should be neat, which, of course, they should, clothes should be hung up and beds should be made, each and every day.   Well, maybe the beds would be made and maybe not because we knew that if we didn't, MOM would do it for us.  Now, she was a kind-hearted dear and didn't realize that, if she did that, we wouldn't.  This was all fine. We threw our clothes in the closets, mom mostly made the beds and daddy was happy.  There was no 'flak' from daddy.

Then, I got married and, oh my gosh, I had to do my own cleaning!  If mother had known how hard it would be for me, just to get started on cleaning, she would have never done it for me; she would have just let it go and let happen what would have happened: daddy would have got mad and I would have had to clean up my room myself.

I decided that I just couldn't look at a nasty, messy home.  I started making the bed.  Oh, it was SO hard!  But it didn't take too many months for me to get in the habit of doing it without even thinking about it.

So: did I instill these habits into my own children?  Well, I tried!  Most of them were fairly neat but, for several, it's been really hard for them to get the message to make their beds and keep their rooms clean.  In the end, that's a little thing but it's important because it gives them a bit of discipline which is what they need for self-discipline.  That's the goal!  Everyone needs to be able to make themselves do what they need to do, in order to have a successful, happy life.

What do you want to do in life?  Odds are, it's going to require some kind of schooling beyond high school.  That takes SELF-discipline. I see a lot of parents, mostly mothers, standing over the children, each and every day, directing their homework, word by word.  It's a handy collaboration between teacher and parent to make sure the work is finished.  If you're lucky doing that, the child might pick up the habit of self-discipline and take over the responsibility for homework.  Then again, if you are the one who directs them, when they leave, they might not pick up the responsibility.  Are you willing to take the chance?

In effect, self-discipline gives us so many choices!  We know that we CAN and WILL do what we CHOOSE to do!  That is very, very freeing!

It's easy to instill this discipline in children if you start when they're very young with small jobs around the house.  I see so many mothers just picking up after the children, because it's easier, cleaning up their rooms for them, doing everything, expecting nothing. Then when they graduate from high school, the young adults play the "I'm getting a job" game, looking and looking, never finding anything which agrees with them.  Some may return to school and some may not (hardly any will work to pay for education themselves!).  Please, never get yourself in that situation!  (And, let their homework be their homework!

Dear Lord, remind us that the reason you want us to help our children grow up to take responsibility is that they make the decision to choose you to be Lord of their lives, so they can live with you (as WE want to!) forever after!  It's not easy to make our children do what they need to, or even for us to do what is best; we need your loving help, please!