Empathy

Ohhhhhhhh this is so good.  Cate posted it over on fb today.

We can talk till we are blue in the face about how much some of our kids struggle with empathy or lack it altogether...

but...

...if we are completely honest with ourselves...painfully honest...how many of us parents fail to show empathy towards our struggling children?

If they say..."I ABCDE!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Do we say..."Bummer.  At least you have FGHIJ."

When they say..."I HATE everything and EVERYONE in this HOUSE!!!!!!!"

Do we say..."Bummer for you.  At least you have a family to hate.  AND A HOUSE TO HATE!!!!"

Believers with struggling kids...we too are struggling kids.  

I know for a fact that I lack empathy much of the time.

Perhaps you do as well.

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The relentless & ever present struggle does wear us down.  I know.

And it is oftentimes after seasons of empathetic parenting that we snap and fail miserably.

Those times are great opportunities to model a turning from sin...REPENTENCE.

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And....sometimes....the person stuck in the whole...is the one walking in sin and giving into the evil desires of their own heart.