Habit Training

Charlotte Mason recommends working on one habit at a time, then just keeping watch, which she says is easy, over the habits you have already formed. She says (very loosely paraphrased of course) a mother would do better to work at only a handful or two worth of habits in her children in the course of their childhood, than to be scattered and try and work on everything all the time.

I hope I can work on two habits in myself at a time, because I already really desire to work on the habit of fitness. I didn't get completely in my groove yet. But I did two major walks last week (and it was a crazy week with my husband patching a good deal of the siding on our house).

The other habit I want to work on is gentleness. When I correct I tend to scold. I catch myself sometimes. But, I don't catch myself every time. My parents really didn't correct at all. My dad did sometimes. If he did he scolded. My sister was a type of authority figure in my childhood, and she scolded constantly, as you can imagine (when children are left mainly to themselves). But, I spent summers with my Grandparents down in Texas for many the summer. Good memories. My Grandparents really loved me with a real sacrificial love. And, my Grandmother would correct me. And, I love her for that. She did so because she cared. Yet, she scolded. A gentle answer turns away wrath. My oldest has a tendency to talk back to me (I didn't....that's not important because...) and then I have to correct her for this. She is very sweet, actually. She doesn't "talk back" as you see many children in the world "talk back"...she isn't sassy. Yet, nonetheless, she argues with my correction. And, I have to consistently correct her for that. Yet, I've also set her up to argue with me...by scolding I am incurring her wrath.

I Peter 3:4 says

"Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."

Titus 2:4,5 says

"Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."

Perhaps, I, as a woman, have been especially given instructions like these because of the special role I play in raising and training my children. I pray that God will help me change the habit of scolding and continue to keep this habit up as time goes by.