Are we forgetting to teach our children forgiveness?

My husband and I have been taking the Love & Respect class at our church on Wednesday nights for a couple month now. It has been really good. A couple of weeks ago we watched a video and Dr. Eggerichs was saying that when you've upset your wife how important it is that you apologize by saying that you're sorry and also asking for her forgiveness. Now I know that this is a marriage class and totally took to heart what he was saying but it hit me another way as well. He went on to say that when asking for you're wives forgiveness how much it would take her back. I thought about it and he's right. Wouldn't it take all of us back a little bit? Its easy to say sorry but to muster up and ask some one for forgiveness. Thats HUGE and rare. By definition the word forgiveness means this...Forgiveness is typically defined as the process of concluding resentment, indignation or anger as a result of a perceived offense, difference or mistake, or ceasing to demand punishment or restitution. Asking for forgiveness is admitting that you were wrong about something and making a personal commitment of sorts that you will not hold on to their wrong doing. How awesome is forgiveness?? AMAZING, yet so hard to do. When we are wronged it's hard to forgive because usually we won't forget. What really hit me was, "Oh my, am I teaching Carter how to forgive?" It's very easy for me to give the busy mom line of, "tell your brother you're sorry" but I'm forgetting to teach about the forgiveness that comes after the apology. The more I thought about it I started to realize that I'm probably not the only one forgetting this. It may seem so little, but in reality it's huge. As a mother of boys I want my boys to grow up learning the importance of how to treat a lady. While this is key, they need to learn to forgive everyone that may apologize to them. Teaching them from very little is the best way to get them in the habit of it. Just because I may have trouble as an adult forgiving sometimes, I know its not something I'm proud of, I am human and imperfect. I definalty want my children to learn from my mistakes. My biggest struggle that I face is how to teach Carter forgiveness. It's not as though he's a typical child who understands everything. It's all about wording things in a way that he can understand. Although I've become better about this I'm still no expert. Getting him out of the logical thinking and into emotional understanding is going to be a challenge. I'm up for the challenge. While it may take a while for him to grasp it I can at least try every time an apology is made for him to try and understand. Hopefully one day he will get it. So am I alone on this or does anyone else forget to teach our children the importance of forgiveness???

You are my sunshine.....

It's a song I've sang to both my children since they were babies. Not only is it calming but the words are wonderful. Cooper is no doubt my little ray of sunshine in this crazy world. He makes me happy when skies are grey. A couple of months ago Cooper woke up and had pooped sometime in the night which is really unusal but anyway by the time he woke up and we changed his diaper his butt was raw. The poor baby. I put some cream on while he screamed bloody murder. It happened again during the day, pooping I mean, and again it burned him again. What could have caused this...Think..Think? Oh yea he had a antibiotic, which I hate, a couple weeks ago. He had a double ear infection and there was nothing I could do, naturally, for him. Anyway, antibiotics kill not only the good bacteria in your stomach but also kill the good. The normal gut flora keeps the dangerous disease producing bacteria from flourishing in the bowel. When you lose the good bacteria you are at risk of the bad bacteria taking over. Our "friendly" bacteria in the bowel are then being crowded out by more vicious disease-causing bacteria. This bad bacteria then causes a yeast overgrowth. The bad yeast thrives on sugars of any kind. Sugar such as bread, diary, cheese, all fruit and starchy veggie. Foods that are really hard to avoid when you're 2 yrs old. It put me in a pure panic mode because Carter had the same bad diaper rash when he was little. At the time I didn't know what it was other than a bad diaper rash. Now that I am more educated I freak out. As Cody says, I put my autism goggles on and thats all I can see. But my thinking is, how can I not? The word "Autism" flashes through my mind over and over dozens of times all day every day. It affects our every day so how can it not be on my mind? Other than a little bit of sensory issues I haven't seen red flags surrounding Cooper to make me think he is autistic, but after doing the research on yeast overgrowth I'm convinced its an issue in our home. For Carter, Cooper and myself. So what are you to do? Well I've found a nutritionist that specializes in special needs kids. Im hoping to meet with her soon about how to feed the kids. The only way you can kill the yeast is to starve it. Starve it meaning no sugars, etc. It's going to be very hard I'm sure once we start the diet, but even if we have to eat the littlest variety of foods to kill that horrible yeast then we will for sure do it. These are my children why wouldn't I do this. Yes it's a huge inconvenience but if this is what they need then we will do it! This post was really half personal to get my feelings jotted down but the other was just to raise some awareness of the dangers of antibiotics and yeast overgrowth. Things that I can suggest you do while I save money to meet the nutritionist is to educate yourself. The next thing I would suggest is to give your children probiotics. You can either give them a coconut yogurt or buy probiotic in a pill form. Both my children are taking Theralac. You can buy it at The Vitamin Shoppe. You do not have to get this specific kind. We simply use it because that 's what was suggested by Carter's Defeat Autism Now doctor. It has the one of the strongest strengths. It is in a capsule form so we have to mix it up in the kids coconut cultured milk. This drink is also good because it contains pre and probiotics. I am by no means suggesting everyone go on a anti yeast diet but simply suggesting that you educate your self about the signs and symptoms in you and your family after taking antibiotics.