I read about a little girl. Her name is Joanna and she has a little brother named Jordan. He is 13 months and she is 3 years old. He has 6 teeth, 4 on top and 2 on bottom. She has a full mouth of teeth. Suddenly Jordan comes running to his mother just screaming! He shows her a full set of teeth marks on his arm and she knows where the bite mark came from.
She calls Joanna in and she grabs her by her face then, like she so often does, let her thumb and forefinger hold onto her ear and says, "Look at my mouth. This is important. You are never again to bite your brother. Do you understand that?" Giving her a gentle, light spanking she told Joanna she can not watch Sesame. Joanna cries about that.
Later that evening Mother runs her bath water, pulls off her little clothes and is startled to find a terrible bruise on her backside. Turning off the water and knowing before she asks, she says, "Where did you get that bruise spot?" Joanna says, "That's where Jordan bit me right before I bit him back."
The mother says, "Oh, I didn't understand that he'd bitten you. Why didn't you tell me?" Joanna responds, "Mother you didn't ask so I thought you knew." Mother says, "I've been a bad, bad Mommy. You want to spank me? You can spank me if you want to."
She says, my little girl reaches up out of the bathtub with those wet hands and catches me on both sides of the face, then one of her little hands slides over to catch my ear with her thumb and forefinger and she says, "Mother look at my mouth. This is berry important. Mommy it's OK." Oh she says, can you imagine how I love that little girl of mine?
Mothers become better than they have to be when we love them with unwavering forgiving love. We know about forgiving love because they have patterned Jesus' forgiving love for us to see and imitate. Jesus says, "Forgive others and God will forgive you." Luke 6:37 Lord, bless our Mother's for showing us how.
To God be the Glory!
Rev. Patricia E. Walker AlphaChurch.org.