Exasperate Who?!

^{Ephesians 6:4}  

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

I guess by the time I read this it was already too late. My grandson is a professional procrastinator. Me, I want things that need to be done, done and out of the way.

I got up knowing he had a school project due Monday that he’d been putting off for weeks. He and his mom picked up what he needed to do the project last night. When I went into his room he was (as he usually is) playing a video game. I told him with absolutely no patience to get off the game, eat his breakfast and get to work on his project.

This was an approach guaranteed to get the opposite of the result I was looking for. He does not like me “nagging”, or butting in to his business. To be totally honest he’d rather I was still in Florida with as many states as possible between us. My presence is a constant irritant to his 12 year old self. So needless to say after breakfast he went right back to playing his game. 

At this point I called in the reserves emailing his mom at work. She called and spoke to him, giving him a specific time to end the game and start the project. I could have done that but just as he knows how to punch my buttons I went out of my way to punch his.

The verse is not just for fathers but everyone who deals with children. If we are going out of our way to exasperate the children in our lives they are not going to be open to the training we want them to hear. He tries my patience simply because he is not like me so instead of taking that into consideration I decide I am the adult, I am the boss, I am the awesome and mighty….well you get the idea.   

He should be more like me but he isn’t and no amount of nagging is going to change that. I know he thinks I should be more like him and no amount of hissy fits on his part is going to make that happen.

We are going to have to learn how to work with each other, different as we are. Sometimes it goes fairly smoothly, sometimes, not so much.