Day 122: Children

Megan wanted to borrow Mariah's ukulele the other day. Megan is very responsible and I knew she would return the ukulele without incident. Mariah, however, has really high anxiety about things and especially doesn't like things thrown at her suddenly, which is how the question of the ukulele came up. I encouraged Mariah to let Megan borrow the ukulele. Mariah's anxiety spiked. She screamed. She stomped. Megan said, "Never mind." Mariah said, "No! Now you have to take it!" And it all ended in her lying in the front yard crying instead of walking to school.

I hugged her and reassured her and she decided she could go to school, after all.

But what if, instead, when the question had first come up of whether Megan could borrow the ukulele, what if I had encouraged Mariah to pray about it and ask Heavenly Father what He thought she should do. How cool would that have been? 1) It would teach her to pray when making hard decisions 2) It would have given Heavenly Father a chance to soothe her anxieties and 3) She would have gone to school having made the choice to be kind without feeling like her mom forced her to do it.

That is one good idea! It is definitely inspiration! I just need to remember to do it next time!