Potty Training Miller Boys 101 and 102

I can defiantly say that the difference in potty training my boys has been striking. Gerry was the grandpa- stuck in his diaper wearing ways and refusing to change. While as, Ben is the dictator- taking absolute control of all substances leaving his body and wielding power from all those around him.

Gerry was nearly 3 and 1/2 before he potty trained. Up until that point, he outright refused to sit on the potty. He would scream and cry at the idea of not wearing a diaper. All the books say "don't force them" and "make it a positive experience." Apparently, they never met Gerry Miller. I don't know why using the potty was such a frightening event for him which made it all the more frustrating. We finally took the boot camp approach. We refused to put a diaper on him and played with him in the bathroom all morning while his potty awaited him. He held it from the moment he woke up (with a dry diaper)until around 10:30 a.m. Then, he finally made pee-pee on the potty while screaming in terror. Afterwards, we had a major celebration which must have had an impression because he totally changed his attitude and used the potty like a professional from that moment on. We skipped pull-ups and went straight to underwear.

And then there is Ben. Ben is my little dictator. He likes to tell me when I will eat, where I will sit, which toys I will play with etcetera, etcetera. In the beginning, Comrade Ben enjoyed the idea of using the potty. He would go all day with out an accident in the first week or so. Then, the novelty of the potty wore off. The dictator decided that it was old hat and he wasn't going to do it anymore-especially when Mommy suggested it. So we went back to diapers for a time. Then, I decided not to put any pants on him. He really liked this idea. He could use the potty without any help. And he did for a while- until that got old too and he was back to asking for a diaper or peeing on the floor. So, I broke out the training pants. Well, he didn't like that they got wet so he would very reluctantly use the potty. He would wait until the absolute last second- when the potty dance was no longer effective in delaying the inevitable. And then he would still insist that he didn't need to go. Of course, he would wet his pants just a little bit. And then he would make sure that I had given up waiting on him and went to do something else that wasn't paying attention to Ben. Only after this would he announce he had to "go potty, QUICK!" So, being the dutiful subject, I would halt all activities and run Ben to the potty and be amazed at the amount of pee that can come out of a two-year old bladder. This little routine has been going on now for a month or so. I have been trying to think up little ways to derail his game without hurting the potty progress, but all of my tricks have not really worked. He enjoys watching me drop everything I am doing to run him to the bathroom and if I ask him if he needs to go before his announcement, the answer is always "NO!" despite the yellow eyes and dancing feet. It has to be his idea and it has to interrupt what ever I am doing.

His power wielding game also works nicely when we leave the house. Except he doesn't wait until the last second. He is curious to see what other bathrooms look like. He wants to see how other toilets work and how other sinks work. Who knew that there were bathrooms all over town! Its been a fun discovery for him and every time we go out, he can produce at least 3-4 drops in the potty in order to justify a visit the new and interesting bathroom. I have considered traveling for the next 6 months or so in order to speed this process along, but then I figured the discovery of a new bathroom will also be old hat soon.

I have been a little frustrated at this potty training experience. Everyone told me that Ben is so smart- he would train early and it would be easy. They were right about the smart part- he showed all the signs for potty training readiness at 27 months or so. But he has decided that he is too smart for potty training. It's too easy and boring and it doesn't interest him- unless he can get some entertainment out of it by wielding power from atop his potty.

Rich Soil

Matthew 13:18-23



I long to have rich soil. I long to live undoubtedly rooted in the will of God. I long to hear His voice. I long to believe with an unshakable faith. I long to serve Him as he would see fit. I long to share the joy he has placed in my being. Oh, how I long. Lord, call me to your presence and change my heart.

Time to Share

Sharing is hard. It doesn't come easy when we are little. Letting others play with our toys and star in our make believe games is something we are forced to do by Mom. It’s not easy at first. When you share, you have to let go of control. Your toy is in someone else's care. Your make believe story has a new star. And it is hard to watch the new unexpected path your toy or story will take while in the care of this person you have reluctantly trusted. It's not easy to share. Only when we see beyond our sadness and into the happiness that our toy or game has brought to another that we begin to understand the value of sharing.

As an adult, I still struggle with sharing. But it isn’t my toys, or my stories, or my time that I want to keep to myself. It’s my heart. I don’t want to let go of what is inside of it. I don’t want to let others poke around in there. I don’t want to be vulnerable. I like to keep everyone a safe distance away so nobody gets hurt. If it were up to me, I could probably live like that the rest of my life. It would be a safe life. But that is probably all it would be- just safe.

The problem with my heart is that I do share it. I share it with my God. And trusting Him with it has become easier and easier and I travel along my faith journey. I am happy to have Him poke around in there and even make Himself comfortable. God has been a constant rock in my life and I am certain that He won’t do anything bad to my heart. He my change it or mold it but all the while He is holding my hand and I know He loves my heart more than I can imagine.

So, why is this a problem? Why can’t I go on to live a happy, safe life alone with my God? Well, it doesn’t work. I tried it. I was miserable. God has not called us to be loaners. He wants us to be part of a community. This was apparent when he created Eve for Adam. God wants us to share our hearts with one another. He wants us to see the beauty of love in each other and share our joy.

As a child, when you share a toy, there are risks involved. It could get broken. It could get lost. It could be stolen. It may not be returned to you in the same condition in which you shared it. These are all the same risks we face when we share our hearts with one another. We could be hurt. We could be changed. We could be lead down a path we did not want to take. We may not be the same after we have shared. So what is the payoff? What is all this hype about sharing our hearts? It could just be the joy of seeing God change someone else’s heart.

Government Abortion Funding

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Commitment

Do you ever feel like you are being pulled in a million directions? I do. Man, do I ever. I am a wife, a mother, and a caregiver for other people's precious little angels just to name a few. The time that my husband's job demands requires me to be on call for our family 24/7 it seems. Finding time for myself is out of the question. So how am I suppose to find time for my God? Or time for my family? Or time for the commitments he has laid before me at the church I have been called to? Or time for the friends he has placed in my path? It's all a big balancing act, or is it?

This Sunday, the gospel reading was about the story of Jesus calming the storm while He and the disciples traveled in the boat on the sea of Galilee. The disciples were afraid of the storm and they were astounded that Jesus was sleeping through the whole frightening event. They woke him and asked him what should they do. Jesus was frustrated with them for having little faith and he immediately calmed the storm to lessen their fears.

That got me thinking about all the times in my life when I asked Jesus to calm the storm. Should the calm be what I focus my prayers upon? Or should I have the faith that God has a purpose to the storm? The storm may be there to draw me to a new level in my spiritual life. The storm may be there to bring about God's kingdom. I am sad to think of all the times when I have asked Jesus to calm the storm instead of embracing the storm with the faith that God's Will is bigger than my life. How many times have I missed the step to the next level? How awesome would it be if I just danced with God in the rain and trusted that He will keep me close to Him? Faith, hope and love is what I should be praying for.

The Prayer "Soul of Christ"

This prayer was on the cover of the bulletin today.

Taken from A Contemporary Reading of the Spiritual Exercises

Jesus, may all that is you flow into me.
May your body and blood be my food and drink.
May your passion and death be my strength and life.
Jesus, with you by my side enough has been given.
May the shelter I seek be the shadow of your cross.
Let me not run from the love which you offer,
But hold me safe from the forces of evil.
On each of my dyings, shed your light and your love.
Keep calling to me until that day comes,
When, with your saints, I may praise you forever.
Amen

Divine Beauty in Us

In the last CRHP meeting, our spiritual leader had a vision about a beautiful garden and how each one of us was a beautiful flower in the garden. And the gardener in the garden was Christ. And while she admired the beauty of all the flowers-all of us, he carefully picked all the best flowers of each one of us and made her a bouquet and handed it to her. It was at that moment that she knew she would be our spiritual director. The thing that stuck out at me was how she was struck by the beauty of the garden. I consider myself to be a pretty average soul. Why would God choose beauty as a means to describe us? Later that evening, I saw an article on the Word Among Us website that went into great detail about divine beauty. I was drawn to read it thinking that there was something more that God wanted me to understand about the vision. The following is a summery of that article.

God is beautiful. His beauty is something that we cannot comprehend here on Earth with the limitations of our imperfect humanity. The Son is of the Father and the Holy Spirit is the breath they share. Therefore, the Trinity is beautiful. They are beautiful because they admire the beauty they see in each other. The beauty of their relationship is much like music. Each note derives its beauty from its relationship to the other notes. Their beauty is not defined by the limitations of our senses. Their beauty is divine and something that we will fully experience in the next life.God created mankind in His image. Therefore, before sin entered the world, Adam and Eve understood and experienced divine beauty. They lived with the beauty of God in the garden. They saw the beauty in each other. Life was beautiful. After they committed sin, Adam and Eve could no longer see the beauty God gave them. They were ashamed of their nakedness and covered themselves. They hid from God. Because of their sin, they lost their privilege to experience divine beauty. However, God did not take away their desire to seek beauty. As humans, we seek and appreciate beauty. This is seen in things such as art and music. God left us with this desire so that some day we may find our way back to the source of the beauty.

When God's Son came into this world, He had to give up the experience of divine beauty. He had to become human- like us. The divine beauty was absent from this world and the only way He could bring it back to us was to become one of us. This sacrifice brings me to my knees. The humility He has is amazing. He became one of us and gave up the beauty He experienced with His father. This is an amazing unconditional Love for mankind. When He was on earth, He spoke constantly of God's glory. Glory is another word for beauty. He said that by doing the will of the Father, He is glorified. He became like a window through which we can see the beauty of God. By doing His father's will in dying on the cross, Christ pays the debt for the sin of humanity. He gives beauty back to the world through its opposite- an ugly death on the cross. When we accept His love and give our hearts to Him, we are made beautiful. We become part of His family and we share in His beauty. And he generously gave us the Eucharist so we can share in His beauty more fully here on earth.

We are made beautiful through the relationship we share with Christ. And we are made more beautiful every day that we not only give our love to Christ but also to each other. You see, Christ taught us that we should not be looking for the love of beauty. We should be looking for the beauty of love. The Trinity models this love for us and their love is what brings about their beauty. Christ modeled this love for us during His life on earth. He loved us and His Father with every ounce of His being. His love made Him radiate an inner beauty that conquered death which brought beauty back to the world and the people He and His Father loved. And with every small ounce of love we give Him and give each other, He abundantly shares His beauty with us.

After reading the article, I definitely had a clearer understanding of the beauty in the vision. We are beautiful in the garden because Christ makes us beautiful. He waters us with His love and shines His beautiful light on our faces. He carefully prunes us and showers us with hope so that we may become stronger and more beautiful every day. He allows the rain to wash the dust off so we may soak up as much of His light as we can. He planted us all in His garden so that we can not only love Him and place our lives in His hands, but also love and share with each other as well. And He brings others to the garden so that they may see our beauty. And He hopes that we will tell them all about the one who makes us beautiful so that they may want to grow in His garden too.