limits, love and laughter

I am amazed at how much raising a puppy is like raising a child!

1. A puppy pushes limits all the time.
2. only very consistent training changes anything.
3. you cave once and you pay for it for a week.
4. they really WANT to please you.
5. when they know they are in trouble they hide from you.
6. if there is more then one boss in the room they will revert to the behaviour that the weakest one allows.
7. they are so cute that its sometimes hard to stand your ground.
8. being lazy is not an option if you want to train them right. :-(
9. You need to know what YOU are expecting of them for them to know what is expected of them.
10. Loving them means that sometimes we have to make them unhappy.

And last but not least.....
positive praise works better then punishment.

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.Proverbs 15:1

of course we need to use punishment some times but we as moms need to not get lazy and only catch the bad behaviour. its so easy to get busy and only notice when our  children mess up, Lets make an effort to catch our kids doing the RIGHT thing, being kind, helping a sibling, cleaning their room, whatever it is and smile at them and tell them how great they are!

Pleasant words are like a honeycomb sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

prov. 16:24

some times no matter how hard it is we need to stand our ground.

other times we need to comfort!

Knowing when to do what is the work of the Holy Spirit on our lives. It  is only with HIS help that we can do this thing called mothering well!