This morning we read Psalm 103 for our morning Bible time. When we came to the 8th verse where it says “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,” I paused and explained the meaning to the children. I explained that God is full of mercy and love and that He is not quick to get angry. Most people are quick to get angry. . . . but before I could finish the rest of the sentence, my 5.5 yr old chimed in and said, “You mean, like you, mama?” I looked at him and said, “Yes, like me. I will do my best to learn to be slow to anger.” My son does not beat around the bush and calls it out as he sees it. Today was another humbling experience living and interacting with my children.

What my son said is true. In the midst of busyness in caring for four high-maintenance children, I have become prone to get angry easily. As much as I want to make excuses such as lack of sleep, fatigue, demanding kids, etc, I know when it comes down to it, they did not “make me” sin. Rather, they revealed the sin that was already in my heart. How I have acted was not pleasing to God. I knew I had to change.

Yesterday I listened to a sermon from pastor Dave Harvey titled “When Sinners Say I Do” (from which was derived a book of the same name). When he quoted Thomas Watson in saying, “Til sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet,” it caught my attention. As I struggle each day with anger and wonder how I can get rid of this anger problem, Watson’s quote comes very timely. It is only when we hate sin will we find Christ truly sweet. One important principle that I got from Dave Harvey’s message was that when we sin against our loved ones, the person who is most offended is God. We have primarily sinned against God and this is a great offense. When we have this proper perspective, we will be more likely to mortify our sins.

Our pastor has been teaching through the book of Ephesians, and this Sunday he preached from Ephesians 6:4a on how parents not to exasperate their children. I am a parent of four little ones and naturally this message is of particular interest to me. I think it is helpful that Pastor Cliff listed 17 common ways parents frustrate their children. I listened to each one introspectively to evaluate whether I was guilty of that particular behavior:

1. Favoritism
2. Neglect
3. Permissive parenting
4. Child-centered parenting
5. Legalism
6. Overprotection
7. Hyper-critical
8. Discouragement
9. Hypocrisy
10. Injustice
11. Wrong expectations
12. Unbiblical anger
13. Pride
14. False comparisons
15. Promise breaking
16. Public humiliation
17. Marital conflict

For detailed notes on this week’s sermon, you can open this pdf. If you wish to listen to this sermon, you can go here.

Pastor Cliff mentioned that in preparing for this sermon that after compiling his own list of ways parents can exasperate their children, he then asked his four children for ways he has frustrated them. It is extremely humbling to ask for one’s children’s opinion of how you’re doing as a parent. I decided that it’d be good for my soul to ask my oldest child (the younger three are too young to articulate) for his opinion of me as a mom. I was prepared for the worst, but I believe my son was kind in saying that he couldn’t think of anything that I do to frustrate him. Prior to soliciting for his input, I asked if he knew what Sunday’s sermon was about and he correctly answered, “Parents, do not exasperate your children.” He was listening after all!!! Even though he didn’t give me much feedback, I believe I need to strive to be a better mom to him. I think it is good for us parents to regularly ask our children how we are doing as parents and in what ways we are frustrating or exasperating them. It is very humbling, yet very sanctifying. This is what God would have us do.

Remember the contest we entered for Tim Challies’ Reformation Day Symposium? Our submission won!!! In Challies’ words:

Musings of the Dings – The strategy here worked—brownie points were awarded for including a five-year old in the symposium.

My husband said that Challies might be a bit biased because he also has little ones so he is quite sympathetic. Nevertheless, we are very excited, even more excited than our son.

One of the benefits of having kids is that you never lack interesting stories and funny sayings. There’s always something funny or interesting to chuckle about everyday. Life is never dull with children. Here are some examples from our home:

Alternative Medicine:

Mom: “My tummy hurts.”

3.5 yr old: “I’ll kiss your tummy mommy.”

Non Sequitur:

Mom: “Mommy is tired.”

2.5 yr old: “Do you want to pee, mama?”

Apologizing to oneself:

Mom to 3.5 yr old son: “Son, you need to apologize to your sister for hurting her. Now, repeat after me. I’m sorry for hurting you.  Will you forgive me?”

Before the the guilty party can answer, the offended one (2.5 yr old) starts repeating the apology.

Finding a wife the easy way:

5.5 yr old: “When I grow up, I’m going to be a daddy.”

Dad:  “Son, before you can be a daddy, we will pray that God gives you a wife to marry.”

5.5 yr old:  “Why? I have Emmie and Calissa (his sisters).  I can marry Calissa and Andrew can marry Emmie.  I don’t want to marry someone else.”

When faced with trials or sin, I often hear people say, “This is the work of the devil.” Just recently I had this same thought as I headed out of the door to church with a not-so-happy disposition. I thought this must be the work of the devil because it seemed as though there were many Sundays like this. It was either unpleasant things said or something bad just happened as we hurried the children out of the door. Having a bad mood on the way to church was definitely unpleasant and not something we had in mind.

Even though I thought about attributing this Sunday morning’s foul mood to the work of Satan, I quickly remembered that with my sinful nature, I didn’t need Satan’s help in stirring up anger. I am well capable of that. No help needed in this arena. I am not denouncing the work of Satan as I believe the devil is quite prevalent in the world. What I’m denouncing is our quick tendency to blame others, e.g., Satan (or our spouse, or our children, etc.), instead of owning up to our own failure. When we sin, let’s be clear and admit that it is our fault. Yes, the devil can deceive and attribute to our failure, but it is only when we give him a foothold. When we admit our sin, God is faithful to forgive us if we repent and ask for forgiveness. Next time we’re tempted to blame others, check our own hearts and more than likely the person to blame is yours truly.

For our science experiment today, we made elephant’s toothpaste. We made the kid-friendly version using hydrogen peroxide (3%), yeast, food coloring, and dish soap.  Even though we didn’t use the 6% hydrogen peroxide as suggested by the recipe, we were still able to create a reaction, but just a little bit slower.  Nevertheless, the kids loved the overflowing bubbles.

Matthew getting ready to pour the yeast mixture (catalyst) into the hydrogen peroxide, food coloring, and dish soap mixture.

The reaction is now in motion and the boys are anxiously waiting for more bubbles.

More bubbles.

As usual, I have Matthew write a short page of what he had just learned in his science notebook, and this is what he wrote:

I learned that the yeast acts as a catalyst, which makes the hydrogen peroxide release oxygen faster.

The boys enjoyed the experiment so much that we did three different ones with blue, red, and green food coloring.