Kman refused to participate in his swim lesson. He sat on the side of the pool for the entire half hour while the other kids learned. After swim we went to the park and had a picnic and he had to sit on the blanket with me and not play. He was so upset. Then we went home and he took a nap, which he does not normally do. I was just sure that he would learn his lesson from missing out on fun things and that he would participate in his lesson. I even warned him that we had planned to go to the big water park the next day and if he did not participate in his lesson tomorrow that he would have to sit on the grass while everyone else got to play in the water park. I thought that surely he had gotten the message and that he would have no problems at swim lessons the next day.
Day Two:
WORSE!!! He did not even go near the pool where his lessons were. He threw a huge fit and created a huge scene. I was so mad that it took everything I had inside to not pick him up and throw him in the pool to drown. So against all my wishes and my heart pangs, we went to the water park with grandma and cousins and while everyone including mommy and kem went down the water slide and played in the sand boxes, he sat on the grass. HE HATED IT! he was so mad. And I kept asking him, are you mad at mommy or are you mad at yourself for not going to swim lessons. About 45 minutes into our fun, he came to me with no prompting and said "I am sorry for not going to swim lessons." Later he asked if he "crap-e-rates" (LOL) could he stay up from a nap? It was very difficult for me to stick with the consequence when he was clearly sorry, but I know that it will pay off.
His face lets you know how mad he is, hopefully he learned something...
In all of this I have thought about how our Heavenly Father deals with us. I wonder if he gets angry like I did? I know I am an imperfect being and I am sure he can hold his anger better than I did, but really, I wonder.
And then I was thinking, does it hurt him to inflict consequences? There is no better example of how to deal with people using tough love than our God who we know loves us more than we could ever imagine. But he still lets us suffer the natural consequences of our actions, even if we are sorry.
Does it hurt him when we cry out and ask him to take away our pain, when he knows that it is what we need, and he knows that taking away that pain and suffering will only delay our repentance.
It was hard for me to not let k man go down the water slide today, but I knew that it would be better in the long run. I am not comparing myself to Heavenly Father by any means, but he is the great exemplar, and maybe next time I will try to not be so angry, but I do not regret sticking with the consequences.
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