Self control is hard

Andrew has made a clear decision on how he would like to spend his allowance: on an albino water frog. Every five minutes he has been asking, "When can we go to WalMart and get that frog, Mom?" (no, I'm not exaggerating). I tell him the same thing each time: "When you save enough money then you can purchase a frog." What he didn't realize was that he had more than half of the money saved in his fire-station bank already.

Andrew came home from school today and asked what extra/other chores he could do to earn some more money. For a solid hour, Andrew washed the windows, disinfected the bathrooms (yes, I'll double check), cleaned out from under his bed (ugh!), organized his bookshelf, put away the clean silverware, and picked up some peas. It was fun to award him with a few extra quarters and see his face light up when he realized he even had enough money now to pay over the sales tax on the frog!

Oh, but sin ALWAYS abounds! Soon after his celebration, he got in trouble for hitting his brother. His punishment resulted in waiting an extra day to get the frog. After a long talk, lots of tears, a lesson in self-control, a few prayers, many hugs, and an apology, he seemed determined to guard his heart and be kind. Guess what?!?!!? An hour or so later he "lost" it again by trying to trip his brother because he was mad that Luke got to run an evening errand alone with Daddy.

So, the frog puchase has been taken away indefinitely for the moment. Andrew was very upset at first but he truly hates that he has hurt his brother and has offended God. The first thing he wanted to do after the second occurrence was to go to Luke and give him a hug. The next thing he did was ask, "If I get better at this self-control thing, then can I go to Walmart and get my frog?".