no eyes

Chad went on a long bike ride this morning, and I am home with the girls. As is our Saturday morning custom, I like to provide some kind of special breakfast treat such as cinnamon rolls (the girls actually refer to Saturday as 'cinnamon roll day'), a fruit smoothie, etc. This morning I made a cinnamon coffee cake loaf. (It didn't turn out so hot -- broke in half in the pan.) Anyway, while I was cleaning up the kitchen, the girls were watching Bob the Builder. We repeatedly have told our girls that they can not lean on the TV cabinet, put their feet on the TV cabinet, kick the TV cabinet, touch the TV cabinet. Now I realize we should have nipped this in the bud a long time ago with a hard and fast rule -- you touch, TV is off. Period.

I had already reprimanded Ingrid 3 times about the cabinet this morning (2 too many...) but I was honestly being lazy. Upon the third warning, I told her "do it again and the TV is off." Well, the 4th time (3 too many warnings) came and off the TV went. You can guess Ingrid's response. Not happy. I reminded her of the warning and here was her response:

I wish you didn't have eyes!!

Here's the verse I quoted back to her:

The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Watching the evil and the good. - Proverbs 15:3

She said what we often wish, didn't she? But we KNOW it isn't true. The Lord does see our every little deed, but not as a malevolent dictator waiting for us to slip up. I think I was "waiting for her to slip up" a little bit, because frankly I wanted the TV off. My motivation was wrong in the first place. The Lord watches us for His purposes, I often watch my girls for my own selfish purposes instead of wanting to shepherd their little hearts. The warning after warning after warning was actually doing my girls a disservice. It wasn't showing patience, and ultimately just showed them that "I got my own way".