Angry Words and Hurtful Motives

Tonight’s prayers:
Justin:
Lord, thank you for working in our hearts and helping us to grow. Thank You for helping us make the right decisions and to act out of love. Please keep helping us to love each other and to bless each other. And satan, I command you in Jesus’ name to stop trying to get Shane and I to be mean to each other and to not do what God wants us to do….Lord, thank you for this day. Amen

Shane:
Lord, thank you for blessing our family. Thank You for teaching our hearts to love. Please help me and Justin to not be mean like satan, but to love. Please bless to grow into loving men of God. Bless our me, Justin, mommy and daddy to love like you and to not say what satan says. I ask that You would heal mommy’s back and bless us to all have a good night’s sleep. Amen.

This kids had a really rough night last night. Justin accidentally hit Shane in the mouth with his elbow, but Shane lost control with his words and said that he’d never going to be friends with him again (believing that Justin did it on purpose). So that enraged Justin to grab a hold of Shane’s shirt on the neck and throw him down onto the floor, cornering him and yelling at him. That is when I came out cuz of all the shaking throughout the apartment and saw Shane trapped on the floor between furniture and Justin, crying and scared. I told Justin to let go of Shane and asked what happened.

I tried to explain to Shane that it was wrong to think that Justin did it on purpose instead of making sure and then that it was wrong and his heart was in the wrong place for him to tell Justin that they weren’t friends anymore. It was obvious what Justin did wrong, physically grabbing someone else, losing control, instead of coming to tell me that Shane had hurt his feelings with unkind words. Next I had them sitting across from each other, leading them into asking for forgiveness, but Justin refused to look at him, yelling at me that he could see him from the corner of his eye. Bad heart. Not good. It ended up with spankings and losing Nintendo.

But tonight Shane was trying to convince Justin that he was mean, because, once again, they were playing and Shane was scratched by Justin (on accident), but Shane decided to be mean and tell Justin how mean HE was for scratching him. Instead of physically attacking Shane, Justin called for me and told me what Shane said. I asked Shane why he said Justin did it on purpose, again. Basically, Shane ended up apologizing to Justin for having a mean heart. Justin said he forgave him. I told them how proud I was that Shane decided to tell me the truth and how Justin asked for help, and used self-control and not anger. I showed them how God is helping to grow their hearts. First I prayed and thanked God for His help and for answering our prayers to help us love each other and they followed up with their own prayer. I can’t remember most of theirs; they were much sweeter and more amazing than my paraphrase. Thank You Lord!

Thank goodness spring break is over, and Monday, the boys will once again get some time away from each other and around other kids their age.