challenged

At church on Sunday our pastor asked us to challenge ourselves to give more to God in terms of prayer and time and fasting. He asked us to fast from "something" and come face to face with our true feelings and realities. I have been trying to come up with something to give up during this series. I did promise myself and God that I would read from the bible daily(Still haven't read the whole book-far from it) and pray for family and friends and my own improvement as a mother and wife. So far I think one of my biggest things to get better at is parenting. I stink at being consistant. I constantly say one thing and forget what I said and fall face first. Then I wonder why my kids behave the way they do. For example, Alex thinks every time we go to the store...ANY store, that I should buy her something and if I agree, she then keeps asking for more during the same shopping trip! It's exhausting and it sure is waking me up. I know we have created this monster behavior. We ourselves are impulse buyers and come home with things we want but don't need.When I had very little money it was easy to say no. Now- because I can buy things, I do. I am praying God will help me to go back to the sensible behavior of saying "no" simply because it isn't a need. Of course, from time to time you say "yes" and that's what makes those moments more special. I remember as a kid asking for stuff and my mom would say, I don't have any extra money. We would say, "yes you do!" and point to the coins in her purse. We had no idea what things cost. We just wanted "something". Then we would have a trip to the store one day and mom would get us some candy and we'd think we were the luckiest kids on earth. We appreciated it so much more. So- my job as a mom is to teach my kids to have what you need and only occassionally get something you want as a treat so that you truly appreciate it. I have decided to give up 'yelling" at the kids as my main thing. I am so bad about letting them get me riled up and yelling to be heard. I know I can effectively scare my children to death by reacting calmly and just executing the punishment. Sounds fun....ha ha. Pray for me!