The title of this entry is what I'm going to start trying to say to myself when I have the urge to ask Conley to stop doing something that is annoying or noisy. There are lots of reasons for this. Annoying behavior on average doesn't last for over a minute and a half--so I should just give it that amount of time and breathe through it and let it go. I think I should do this, because the opposite is much worse and looks something like this: 1) I get annoyed at an annoying behavior. 2) I ask him to stop. 3) He doesn't. 4) I get madder. 5) He doesn't understand and just wants to keep doing that behavior (maybe he has a reason for it!) 6) I get really made and impose a consequence and he gets mad and he feels ostracized and just overall the situation sucks.
Another reason to let things go MOST of the time is that when I ask him to not do things that don't really matter, he'll get sick of me asking him to stop doing things, and he'll just overall stop listening and tune me out. And his trust of me will go down too.
Give him the benefit of the doubt. A lot of time, Conley actually has a good reason. I want to say, "Can you help me understand why you're doing that?" Instead of, "Conley!" or "Conley stop!" or whatever. Or worst: "Why would you do that???"
Jesus can help me change. I need to remember that and pray about changing my heart. I can pray not just for patience. But for my heart to change--my instinct to get angry, my instinct to ask him to stop, my instinct to nag, my instinct to get frustrated when I'm not listened to.
I need to connect each day before anything else...just watch them...just be with them. remember my priority list is more important than my to do list.
Moira helped me realize these things. And the Spirit.
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