Love is patient, Mom isn't always

I am catholic. Not a born and raised, but I converted along with my family in high school. 

My husband, the girls and I went to mass this week and had the pleasure of sitting with my father. We were trying our hand in the ‘real’ church. 

Now if you aren’t catholic you might not know, catholic kids go to church. From a very early age Catholic kids sit, listen, stand and kneel and genuflect, and are QUIET. 

I have no idea how this comes to being. We have been sitting in the cry room since E was a baby because she loves to talk, and loudly. 

The second reading last Sunday was Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, or 1 Corinthians 13. 

You all know the one- it’s everywhere this time of year- read at every wedding, recited in every love card. 

Love is patient, love is kind.

It is not jealous, it is not pompous,

It is not inflated, it is not rude,

it does not seek its own interests,

it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,

it does not rejoice over wrongdoing

but rejoices with the truth.

It bears all things, believes all things,

hopes all things, endures all things.

I always have to stop myself from rolling my eyes when I hear this. 

Why? Because it’s so over-used. 

Some time during the homily my 2 year old E decided she had had enough sitting and listening and wanted to go play in the ‘water’, the HOLY water. 

You can bet that my response was no. Which lead to a massive meltdown. 

I was getting up to leave church so that she could continue her tantrum somewhere else when my father leaned in to me and whispered “love is patient, love is kind.”

At first I rolled my eyes, and whispered back “um thanks Dad”. 

But as her mini-meltdown grew in to full blown hysterics, I thought back to that verse that I never really pay attention to. 

From the small part of the homily that I was able to listen to I gathered that the verse was about God’s love and how we should strive to emulate this love in our own lives. 

Where better than to try and replicate this than with a two year old? 

Now I am not a ‘quote the bible’ person. I don’t have a verse for everything, I don’t have verses memorized. I really don’t talk about my faith much with people. I would rather SHOW you my faith. Show it through my actions, not scream it from the mountain top. 

These thoughts really made me think, what am I SHOWING my daughters of God’s love when I am responding to her tantrums. 

I know I am not prefect. I try and react calmly, try and keep it together, but after a while I, like everyone, have been known to crack under the persistence of my free-spirited stubborn two year old’s tantrums. 

I didn’t like the message I was sending to my daughter. I wasn’t proud of how I had been reacting lately. 

I began to think back to what my father whispered in church, “love is patient, love is kind”. 

Although I know that his words were spoken half in jest I found that repeating this simple verse in the heat of the moment helps me to calm down and respond in a way I am proud of. 

After our two and a half hour battle over ‘nap-strike’; “love is patient, love is kind”. 

After she colors all over her legs with my pen in the TWO seconds I was loading groceries in the cart at the store; “Love is patient, love is kind”

It helps. 

It really does. 

Try and parent with this verse this week- maybe it will help you too.