Bugs and other virtues.

Boys are amazing and curious creatures. (Of course they say the same about us, don't they?) What is it that allows a 5 year old boy to pick up a still alive wasp by the wing and run in the house yelling, "I have a bug for brother's bug collection!" Not get stung and send every adult in the house scurrying for cover---yes, we had company. Undaunted he stood there stomping his foot expecting one of us come and retrieve his valued prize. All we could do was scream, "Take it out and let it GO before you get stung!!" He did and he didn't get stung. Whew.

I really DO want to understand males more, honest. I keep trying. As the only female in a household of 7. I am often living among aliens. But I love each of them so very, very much. And so the research continues.

I can tell you they need to be verbally built up a whole lot more than you might have ever imagined, from the youngest to the oldest. You can almost watch them get taller, especially when they "overhear" you talking to someone else about them. However they know a phony when they see one too so make certain it comes from the heart.

It's so easy to correct and criticize and forget to praise. ugh. Make it something you determine to do intentionally or else it just won't get done.

If your like me, you goof this up all too often, but sister hope is not lost.

Psalm 51:10 "Renew a right spirit within me." Renew. To get the thing back. Right spirit. His spirit-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Within me. Matthew 15:18 (New Century Version) "But what people say with their mouths comes from the way they think;"

So. Let's break that down. What we are thinking is what comes out of our mouths. If we are filled with the right spirit, it'll be all that good stuff. It can be renewed when we get our thinking out of whack.

You can battle with me till the cows come home as to WHY a grown man needs to be verbally praised (I could even do it for you!) I'm trying to move beyond that. I'm just telling you he does. Plain and simple. Like it or not. I see it in my boys, I see it in my husband. I have spend too many years on the other side of this issue and I am laying this one down.

RENEW MY SPIRIT LORD!!!