Walls Crumbling Down, Pt II: A Shouting in the Shoe Store

This post started here: Walls (Crumbling down) Around Me, part I

He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls. – Proverbs 25:28 KJV

I believe this verse illustrates a clever way the Enemy gets through to us, and influences us. He tries to get us to lose our spirit, our patience, our self-control.

Often, he succeeds.

The walls around our hearts fall – giving him the perfect foothold to come right on over and create more havoc as he tries to influence our actions.

And I know, in the midst of child-raising, marriage, and home-management, that there are daily, sometimes hourly, opportunities for me to:

1) seek help from the Lord to choose a right spirit or 2) lose it.

Sometimes, it feels like I don’t have a choice, like I can’t control it.

I can, of course. And if I keep my spirit, chances are I won’t break my child’s.

~ To Build (or Break) a Child’s Spirit ~ Huffington Post by Rachel Macy Stafford of Hands Free Mama. ~

A few months ago, my Boy Two was in need of some new shoes. Because of some foot/ ankle issues, he needed to get properly fitted for a supportive pair. I braved the errand with all three boys, in spite of the fact that I hadn’t been going places with all of them because of my son’s issues and tantrums.

Long story very short: he had a big meltdown in the store, shouting, and throwing a huge tantrum (and shoes) in the process. I had finally come to the place where this no longer embarrassed me, but was still emotionally draining and distressing. Trying to help him get calm, I knelt down to his eye level, and spoke to him firmly but quietly. A nearby mom, watching the scene, remarked, “You have a world of patience.”

Weary, I looked at her and said, “It’s only because I’m in public.”

On the way home, the quiet voice of God.

Hey Rhonda, if you can keep a good spirit in public at the shoe store, you can do it in private at home with your children.