I’m going to be totally open with you guys here. My boys have been sick a lot for the past month. They’ve had a very resistant strain of strep and have been on antibiotics more than not. And, like often happens when kids get sick, it has impacted their behavior.

They’ve been restless from being out of school for different reasons, and they’ve just gotten into some bad habits that have just snuck in while they were sick. Now, we’re having to work hard to correct the behaviors.

This weekend, it became evident to me just how off we had gotten. They lost a lot of privileges for basically a series of little things that just added up. Little rules that they know are rules and just haven’t followed. Any of those things in an of themselves wouldn’t be a big deal, but they all contribute to a general attitude of disrespect.

I’d given them a small task to do Saturday and long story short, they ignored me. They continued to ask me for various additional privileges and I had to keep telling them no, and remind them what it was I was still waiting for them to do. They missed out on a pretty outing I had planned for them, and then they were mad at me.

I don’t tell you all of this to badmouth my kids, because honestly – they are kids being kids. We have talked a great deal this weekend about doing the right thing because it’s the right thing, and not just because mommy has warned them that they are going to have a consequence. We’ve talked about being little men of integrity and what that means.

as I was correcting them this weekend, God really highlighted what I was saying to them. I realized that is exactly how we can be with our Heavenly Father.

It can be easy at times to get mad at God when we don’t get what we want, but often, we miss out on blessings and privileges simply because we haven’t done something that He has clearly told us to do, or because we have a general attitude of selfishness, pride, and disrespect. God’s not going to bless that.

Also, it’s important to remember that we need to do the right thing just because it’s the right thing to do, not because of the consequences. If we focus only on the possible consequences, it doesn’t change the attitudes of our hearts.

Matthew 5:23-24
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First, go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”

We need to make sure we fix the attitudes first. So, our breath prayer this week is,
“Lord, help me to do the right thing because it’s the right thing.”