fruitful weekend

last weekend was hart family boot camp - spring 2010 edition.  why was this needed?  well, we felt the need to stage an intervention of sorts.  there was all sorts of nasty behavior goin' on at casa hart.  i was losing my temper and impatient with everyone.  jesse was cranky and impatient with everyone.   luca was whining, selfish and impatient with everyone.  gia was disobeying and impatient with everyone.  (notice a trend?)  (oh and enzo is just cute.)  there was lots of quarreling and worst of all, inconsistency in our parenting.  we were out of control.  an average two-day weekend is just too short to make real strides in these areas.  as much as i want to be greedy with jesse's vacation hours, we realized we needed to carve out a chunk of time to address all the yuckiness.

we have always been intentional in the way we instruct and train our littles, but it doesn't seem to take very long being "out of the habit" for things to spiral downward.  maybe that is why it starts to be so unbearable.  i can't handle knowing that the growth on these sinful behaviors is exponential.  give it a little bit of wiggle room and it just takes off.  the worst part is that is a clear representation of what is going on inside.  we don't want to just change the way our kiddos behave - change is needed at a heart level. 

the good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. for out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

luke 6:45 niv

we began the weekend with an apology.  we sat in our bed thursday morning and confessed that we had not been faithful in our parenting.  we had been inconsistent.  we had not been seeking God for strength and wisdom.  jesse and i each spoke specifically about our own sins.  we asked their forgiveness.  they were gracious and forgave us.  :)

then we asked luca and gia if they could think of any ways they had been sinning.  this took some help on our part, but it was a really good discussion.  we made sure to thank them for confessing and forgive them. 
 
next we talked about how we needed God's help to change our bad behavior.  we looked at the above verse in luke.  how could we store up good in our hearts?  our focus became the fruit of the spirit.

so that is a summary of the why and how we began.  lots more good stuff later.

i am pretty beat.  it was a long weekend.  lots of teachable moments and battles of will.  some funny stories on that.  (funny now, not so much funny in the moment.) like when gia incredulously fought us on a three minute cool down - for TWO hours.  she could not believe we were holding firm.  it was our own personal super nanny episode.

part two might have to wait for the weekend.  i actually can't believe i wrote this out with my fried brain.  enzo is having a rough week.  only three 15 minute naps today!  and pretty much cried all day.  teething maybe?  allergies?  who knows.  just lots of snuggles and such.

oh, one last thing.  i worked on this embroidered hoop art sunday during family movie night.  i thought it was a neat way to create a reminder of our weekend.  i love this take on the verse from luke and how it relates to my hoop art.   

you don't get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. the health of the apple tells the health of the tree. you must begin with your own life-giving lives. it's who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.

luke 6:45 the message

i want a life-giving life.  how about you?

xoxo,
annalea