One of my pet peeves is people with little to no knowledge base telling me what to do. I especially take exception when these advisers don’t have an intimate connection with me and try to guide me in critical areas, like raising my children. In these times I find it hard to show grace and the love of Jesus Christ, but these are the instances where grace and love need to be shown the most. Though I know this, my recovering strong black woman self has a hard time being like Christ, but I am working on it by simply clenching my lips or nodding my head or mustering a small smile. I try to do anything to keep my mouth shut so the wrong words don’t come out. What also helps me is that I am probably being persecuted for righteousness’s sake if God told me to do what others are trying to get me to change. Most of us don’t want opposition. Most of us don’t like conflict. Most of us don’t want to hurt, but if we are living for Christ all of these should be expected, and they place us in good company. Read more of my thoughts on this from a parenting perspective (though the points I make apply beyond parenting) in my latest EEW Magazine column that begins below:
One of my relatives has had a lot to say about a lot of my business. She has told me how I should interact with my husband, particularly what I withhold from him (physically, emotionally, information-wise and financially), how I should care for my recovering mother, and how I should parent my children. I would not mind hearing what she has to say if she were being reasonable, if she were giving me practical and godly advice because she saw I lacked wisdom.
No, she just believes that her opinions have merit because “the good Lord has let me live on this earth longer than you.” But her biggest issue is that my husband and I decided to home educate our children. I know homeschooling isn’t novel and parents are opting to educate their children in a number of ways, but to this 70-plus year-old woman, homeschooling is foreign and has no place in our family.
“He’s going to miss the most important day of his life, his first day of kindergarten,” she said after my oldest turned 5.
“Why do you want to do that, Rhonda?” she said another time.
“How is he going to have friends, Rhonda?” she wanted to know.
And each time she commented, like the time I had to tell her she could no longer babysit my son because she defied our instructions in nursing his cold, I said. . .Read more here.
My One Thousand Gifts List
#601-610
Dinner with the Carrs
Cooking dinner early
Polishing my nails
Praying while holding Nate on the kitchen floor
Having a rich time of prayer with Nate
Bobbi watching the boys
Nichole’s book-launch party
Not being rude to someone who clearly snubbed me
Getting a ministry engagement and a possible mistress of ceremony job for just MCing my friend’s party
Hanging and having a good time with Flynn
