“Mom! I’m trying to do my homework, and he won’t turn his music down!”
“Mommyyyyy! He took the truck I was playing with and won’t give it back!”
“Momma! Will you tell her to get out of the shower? She’s been in there forever!”
Ah, the memories!
Lots of episodes starring our children learning to live together.
Some days our kids got along so well.
They really do love each other deep down…
Partly, I was trying to convince myself.
Mostly, I was choosing to receive the encouraging evidence that God had given me that day.
Because other days I’d wonder.
….when it seems like it’s one sibling’s goal in life to irritate or torment his sibling. Like an intense tennis match – that lasts ALL.DAY.LONG. Only instead of a tennis ball flying back and forth across the net – Comments, looks, and strategically placed elbows and jabs are tossed throughout the house…to the yard…in the car…at the supper table…
Siblings are who God has given our children to live with.
What does He have in store that He wants them to give each other, model for each other, learn from each other?
Age spans, personality differences, varied interests and abilities. God has a plan. THE PLAN.
The best use of our time is to surrender our plan, our strategy, our approach.
Our children will have fun, difficult, and meaningful times. They’ll exchange tons of emotion.
Raising siblings is hard work. Tattling, mean words, tears, fights… Over and over and over again.
Raising siblings is a treasure, too. Truckloads of laughter, companionship, mountains of memories.
We listen. We hold. We love. We forgive. We pray and pray and pray.
God hears. He’s with us. He sustains all of us. He moves.
God uses sibling relationships to teach our children how to love someone else – through their differences, through forgiveness, through lots of shared time, through learning to depend on Him for insight and understanding.
Uniquely, brothers are brothers for life; sisters will always be sisters; brothers and sisters will forever be brothers and sisters. Family. God’s design.
Dear God,
Thank You for our children. Grow their hearts to love one another deeply. Heal their hurts. Strengthen their bonds. Show us how to be Your vessel in their relationships. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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