Being the mother of six children, I find myself entrenched in plenty of excitement. Each of my children are uniquely gifted to bring an abundance of excitement into my day. Frankly, sometimes I wonder “How am I going to handle this? What should I do?” I know that I will never be able to dodge all the thrills and buzz of our home. What I can do is consider how I ought to respond to those “little rascals” .

To give you a picture of the adventures the “little rascals” bring I thought I’d share a few:

A local artist (in our home), colored a cooperative cat extremely green, freakishly rendering the cat into the “Grinch”.

• A wanna- be- beautician replicated the 80’s mullet with precision causing her to resemble Cyndi Lauper, “Miss Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”.

• Our ever talented handy man, who has difficulty zipping his paints, meticulously removed all the switch plates on the first floor with great ease and silence.

• An illusionist in the family thought concealing a smelly smoked fish in an underwear drawer would be a place mom would never look .

• Our yard boy decided we did not need our lawn mower to be assembled any longer, nor did we want flowers on the plants. CHOP!

A persistent little chef rendered my chili recipe into “Dilly Chili” with a quick stroke of genius by adding an entire container of dill into the pot.

The truth of the matter is not what my “little rascals” are doing, but how I am responding to them. When my children walk away from my interactions with them, do they see an angry, proud, and irritated mom? Or do they see a mom who is patient, humble, and a servant who takes time to help them? Am I leading them to God by exhibiting my trust in Him (even during chaos)? I must confess it is easy to be selfish and act inconvenienced by their shenanigans, but God has called me to love them and to view them as more important than myself. Will my children see that I love God and them more?

My “little rascals” need a mom who ponders on how to respond to their struggles, sins, and mishaps in a way that would be pleasing to God. I pray that my “little rascals” will see right responses and do like wise. The parenting responses I want to have are found in the following passages:

I Co. 13:4 “Love is patient, love is kind,…..love is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not take into account wrongs suffered,”

Eph. 6:4 “Fathers do not provoke your children to anger; but to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”