No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

1 Corinthinans 10:13

That’s the truth! Wrestling truth into belief is hard though isn’t it?! The truth? There’s always a way out.  How do we find the Way? The Way is always mapped out in the Word. Follow the Word and you will find the way out of every trap of sin you have ever landed in. He sent His Word and healed them and delivered them from all their destructions.

And I hear myself saying, “Didn’t I already tell you…?!” The redness crawls up skin coloring my face angry. Even brown-skinned people can blush sometimes. “Just obey!” As if  a simple two-word command uttered in utter frustration will transform my kiddos into quiet compliant beings. That’s not what I want anyway, but it feels like it in the moment. Sometimes we ‘re stung by our sin off and on again all day, stinging others, killing ourselves. And we shake our heads at ourselves and mutter harsh rebukes under our breath, but our sighs don’t bring life or repentance…truly we need Someone else to breathe over us living Words that will bring truth, to show us another way…. For all our sin there is always another way.

The things that reach in and try to take hold of our souls, we have full power in Christ to deny. If you are in Christ, you have every ability to say no to sin. Will we live perfectly? No, of course not, but we have the ability in Jesus to resist and flee from temptation. There is always a way out.

Muttering anger and annoyance all over the day…doesn’t train a child, it scares a child.

Training a child is hard. Making a child obey out of anger, molds fear-based compliance, not love-filled relationship. In Christ, we should train with love and gentleness. Firmly teaching our child to obey as a habit, offering appropriate discipline and correction when they sin and wrapping all of that in biblical love, so they can understand the Gospel. If you’re thinking that’s impossible, you’re right, without Jesus it is impossible… With Him though there’s a way… Where is the way though? I mean really where is it in the middle of 5 loads of laundry, the never-ending supply of cheerios and crumbs the kitchen floor keeps offering up, the meals you have to keep on making even though you just did all that yesterday (smile)…how in the midst of life…how in the world are we going to escape the habit of anger in our mothering.

The enemy of our souls would have you believe that you can’t, but the Word of God…THE Way breathes fresh on us in 1 Corinthians 10:13. Jesus is telling us we can. We can escape the habit of anger…. Please understand that I am not talking about mere negative feelings we experience when our children do what they should not do…. Any good parent is going to feel sadness at that. I am talking about the sinful display of anger that easily occurs when we pay no mind to way out our Father is giving us.

1. Pray to the Lord for help and guidance. Do you pray? I mean really take the time to pray and breathe out to God what concerns you. The minute you feel your temper bristle, cry out to the Lord for help…. Let your kids see it. Let them see how the Way, our King Jesus, keeps us from sin, and if we fail how He is just as faithful to lead us out of sin. It is always good for them to see mommy repent. Living pictures of Gospel grace given to little souls who need it. 

2. Choose a passage of Scripture to remind you to align your attitude with Christ’s. I love James 3 every bit of it. I cling there. The kids know it too…Wisdom comes from above it is first of all pure then peaceable and gentle open to reason full of good fruit unwavering without hypocrisy. A common reason we are so angry/annoyed in mommyhood is that we are unreasonable. Maybe our child is 2 and we’re expecting them to act like a 5 year old. When the Incarnate God Man, Jesus, was a 2 year old I am guessing he acted like it, perfectly (smile). We should require our obedience but what we require needs to be reasonable.

3. Refuse to get mad at childhood. We’re all guilty of it! We get easily annoyed because the child is acting like a child…running, playing with things, forgetting the rules. We get mad that our kid is needy and that they just can’t act like an adult yet. We romanticize the sweet moments and exaggerate their hard times, instead of receiving the gift of their childhood as a whole. We have to receive chasing after kids covered in sweat coupled with sleepless nights along with the cute cuddles, jokes, smiles, adorableness they share.

4. Learn to give grace. Imitate your Heavenly Father.Yeah, our kiddos must learn to obey and to obey quickly, but if we want to imitate disciplining our kids the way our Heavenly Father disciplines us we have to be willing to give them grace. For example, you see your child disobey a household rule. They are running where they are not supposed to… You know they know the rule, but you’re also open to reason right…and see they forgot. It wasn’t outright rebellion, it was forgetfulness. There still needs to an appropriate consequence if the forgetfulness continues but if you remind them of the rule and they quickly obey give them grace.

They don’t need a hard fist they need a gentle firm hand guiding them as to where they should go. If they are outright disobeying make sure that your discipline corresponds with wisdom, not with your anger.

5. Confess your anger as sin and allow yourself to see it as God sees it. Refuse to justify your sin because you’re sleepy, tired, hungry, frustrated, just need some me time, etc. This may all be quite true, but it is not an excuse for sin. We must learn to control ourselves even when the clock seems to working against us as kids wake us up 2-3 times every other night, or worse (smile).

6. Don’t forget the consequences of your sin as you try to correct your child’s sin. The reality of anger is that it scares people. You can see it on their face, right? They brace themselves for yet another unbridled mommy episode and run shrieking the minute they see they can possibly get away. And wouldn’t you (smile)? It sounds so ugly and it is, because the simple fact is that the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Our unrighteous anger is not going to produce Christ’s righteousness in our children. I think what we’re hoping is that our kids will obey us so that they will learn to obey God, because they love God, not because they fear God is even angrier than their mom or dad.

7. Discipline their disobedience in kindness. By all means, wisely help them learn they *must obey* but do so with such love and kindness that even if the discipline you choose is hard for them, their hearts can receive it. After all, isn’t it God’s kindness that leads us to repentance?

God has the right to be angry, to act in His sinless holy anger against our sin, but instead of unleashing all that we deserve He sends Jesus to die in our place. And three days later His Son is up and out of grave clothes…

Jesus bought 1 Corinthians 10:13. He purchased our way out of the habit of anger in our mothering with blood. Take the Way.

If we are to escape the habit of anger in our mommyhood, we need a new habit. Maybe a habit of gentleness, a James 3 wisdom from above kind of habit. If we lose our temper again and again each day..what if we deliberately practice gentleness each day instead… If we are going to quit the habit of anger, we have to go another way….

Faith in the truth of the Gospel guards us from condemnation when we fail…The certificate of debt against us was nailed to the cross. And that same truth reminds us that there is a Way out. There is always a way…..