Sibling Bonds

I stared out at my children, sitting in their desks, waiting for me to give them instructions for the day. I knew for awhile now things needed to change. I had been praying and praying for weeks, as to how to get a certain change to come about.

I didn't have a plan and i didn't know how to get that change to come. I trusted in God though, that he would show me the way.

And then that day, it happened. God answered my prayers. Not only that, but God spoke through me to my children. The words just came out of my mouth and flowed like honey.

You are probably wondering right about now....What needed to change? What did God say??

I'll tell you.

But a little background first...

I have 2 older sisters. Growing up we weren't really that close, we didn't really have that great of a relationship with each other. To be completely honest, to this day we still aren't that close and our relationships aren't that great with each other.

I could sit here and write about my experiences as a child, but i'd rather not take this blog post in that direction. That's another story for another time.

So back to present day...

My children's interactions with each other lately had been horrible. They were treating each other with such disrespect. I was growing tired of the constant fighting and yelling. Not only that, but every time my children would fight with each other it would take me back to being 10 years old and seeing my sister's fight, then my heart would break all over again.

But on the day God spoke through me, it was like a light bulb went off.

I stood there and looked at my wonderful children and then something like this came out of my mouth...

"I want to talk to you guys today about the Devil. He has come into our house. And we welcomed him in. He is a horrible creature that WANTS us to be mean and hurtful to each other. It makes him so happy when we say mean things to each other or treat each other badly. But do you know who it hurts when we say and do mean things to each other... God.. God wants us to love each other all the time. It makes God so happy to see us loving towards each other. I want us to get rid of the Devil in our house. Today we are going to kick him out of our lives forever."


I wasn't saying it to scare them, like "you better watch out or the devil will come and get you".. No, it wasn't anything like that... It was just letting them know that not only do their actions towards each other, affect one another, but it also affects God.

Then, in an effort to get the Devil out of our lives, we all said goodbye to our electronics and put them into a drawer. We also agreed to not watch anymore TV.  I also told them i wasn't going to be on the computer as often.

So, how did it go? 

Great!! The kids really started building stronger relationships with each other, they would play so well together for hours!! There was less fighting, and more communicating.

How long did this wonderfulness last?

Over a week!

What happened to make it go away?

Me! I'm the problem. I slowly started to let things go back to the old way.. I let them start watching TV again, i let them play video games again and before you know it the fighting started all over again.


What are you going to do now?

We are going back to the no TV, no video games, etc... I know with it only being a few days before Christmas this is going to be tough, but i also know...

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."- Philippians 4:13

Trying to help build strong relationships between my children is one of the things that keeps me up at night, so this is very important to me. Every little thing i can do to help them will be so very worth it in the end!

P.S. In an effort to be completely honest, we will be watching a few Christmas movies in the coming days, but other than that, no electronics of any kind for the kiddos!