Strong sibling relationships is something that, in our house, is... ahem... still "in process." (to put it nicely) They don't always look like they do in this picture. Our kids are very close in age, have very different personalities, and spend LOTS of time together. Many days, that means lots of squabbling!
Moms, is there anything much worse than listening to two (or more!) of your own children bickering, fighting, and being ugly??
We're still working through this area of parenting, so I cannot offer any tips or practical words. But I decided to sit down and at least share this scripture...it's always a great help to me, when I start to get really fed up with my fighting kids!
Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. (I Tim 5:1-2)It doesn't sound very relevant to your brawling babies' bad behavior, but it is! A wise, older set of parents pointed us to this verse several years ago.
They explained: the home is the training grounds for the way your children will handle all future relationships. The way they're trained to treat dad, is how they will treat older men all their lives, and so on. I suppose they could relearn proper, respectful, relational patterns later (probably with difficulty). But our goal is to get it right the first time! We want to set loving, honoring patterns right now.
So, when I catch my son tackling his baby sister or pulling her hair, I can dismiss it. No hair pulled out, no bones broken. Or I can see all the little private interactions of our home as life-long preparation for my kids...
...I certainly don't want my son tackling girls when he is older. Best start now!
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oh, my, how relevant this topic is to the day in day out of our home :) thanks for sharing scripture and helping me see the relevance of why the little lessons are really quite huge in the long run....so good! thanks!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouraging reminder. We have four young children about a year apart, so I can identify very well with this post! It's oh so tempting to just "let it go" during the course of a busy and challenging day.
ReplyDelete“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9
One of my favorite verses on parenting! Thanks again for your post; enjoyed it!
Crystal - www.intentionalhomemaker.com
I've searched with google for big brother and sister face photos. And i find this very beautiful photo here. Thank you!
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