October, 2011 Down Syndrome Awareness Month... Day 5

A little funny...

Josh makes us belly laugh almost every day. Aren't we lucky? I'm telling you, the kid is just funny!  This incident happened several years back tho, when he was probably 3 years old. I remember the day and am not proud of how I acted... but it's just like God to take something gross and stinky and turn it around (yeah, I'm talking about my attitude).

It had been raining for days and everyone was stuck inside and on each other's nerves. I was trying to do laundry, which was scattered all over the beds upstairs for whatever reason (maybe I was on a "you're putting your own laundry away" kick?). The boys did something bad... I have absolutely no recollection of what it was, but it was bad. I yelled, loudly and wildy. You know the whole "don't discipline in anger, but do so in love"? Well, yeah, that didn't even enter my mind. I was HOT!

I sent them to their rooms and made them sit next to each other on one of their beds. Sometimes, at this point, I pray for God to help me discipline in the 'right' way. I didn't pray.

For whatever reason, Josh followed me into their room and sat beside me on the bed. I'm sure he was amused at the way I was acting. Anything loud, crazy and chaotic makes him happy and I was all of those.

As I was loudly lecturing, the boys began to wiggle in their seats, half smirks, trying hard to pay attention to me because they KNEW they should. I kept talking, they kept wiggling and I got hotter and hotter because they were NOT getting it and being VERY disrespectful. Finally I noticed their eyes darting from Josh to me, me to Josh...
 
Josh had Jared's Superman underwear on his head, eyes peeking out the leg hole, and had NO idea that he was being funny. Of course, the boys were little and at the stage where just the WORD underwear sent them into hysterics... but here was Josh, sporting them like a hat, with the most innocent of looks upon his face.

The anger was gone.

Typing this all out makes me think... um... this isn't really as hysterical as it was that day. I guess you had to be there... but I was just really thankful that God took an icky situation and turned it around. He saw me in my wrath (that's a harsh word but there's no hiding anything with God) and used Joshua to defuse me and send us all into fits of laughter. He loves me THAT much. And he loves my boys THAT much that He didn't make them sit thru my angry lecture that would have accomplished nothing. His ways are so different than mine...

Love,
Susan