I babysit multiple times throughout the week. Why am I telling you this? Well, there are a few things that I have learned while babysitting that I would like to share with you. First of all, if you don’t have patience before you start babysitting, you will soon acquire it very quickly. I mean, I always thought that I was fairly patient, but oh man, the first days of watching 11 four-year olds and below (along with a wonderful woman) was more than I thought that it would be. There was a kid who likes to dump toys out of the bin and walk away, another who sings the first three words of a song over and over again for at least five minutes, and other kids who also do things that can test your patience. I’m not going to lie, part way through the day I thought to myself “What did I get myself into?” But, after doing it a few times, I do genuinely enjoy it (well, most of it anyways).

Something that I do before I babysit is pray for God to give me a kind heart and an open mind. It is so easy to let the small things get to you, so I ask God to help me with that. It is not fun when a little kid is crying for their Mom, pushing another kid down, taking a toy away from another, etc. But I have learned that you have to speak kindly to them and just keep a smile on my face even when I have a headache from the noise.

Second of all, I have learned that saying “Don’t do that” does not work well. Saying “If you don’t stop, you will have to go in time out” or “Come over here and sit on the couch” when a child is being rambunctious does get them to listen (most of the time), because there is a consequence.

Thirdly, some kids are just set on doing what they want to, even if they know that it is not right. So, if that means pushing another little kid over and ripping a toy out of their hand, they will do it. And then they get in trouble for it, and they are not so happy about that.

Sometimes I just want to take the kids who will not listen by the shoulders and say “Why are you doing this? You know that you are not supposed to do this, yet you still do it!” And then I realize that they are four years old (and below), and also that shaking a child by the shoulders would probably just make them cry, not make them understand.

I’m pretty sure that God feels the same with us at times. Even if we are a follower of Him, we still mess up. We know what we are supposed to do, but sometimes we just let what our flesh wants choose our actions. So, obviously, He has A LOT of patience.

“Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.” (Colossians 3:12-13)

“With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2)

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness” (Galatians 5:22)

These are good verses for me to remember when things get hectic. It is very important to have patience, so I am glad that God is giving me an environment where I can work on that. It has been a really good experience for me so far.

I have a really cool app on my phone. It’s called the If 7:14 app, and I heard about it at The Newsboys concert that I went to a few weeks ago. Basically this app is a prayer app that is named after 2 Chronicles 7:14, which says “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” When you download this app, you will get notifications twice a day to pray (the app will give you one each time) at 7:14 a.m. and 7:14 p.m.

The app's icon looks like this:

and you just type in “If 7:14” into the search engine to find it.

My songs of the week:

1. "Can't Stop The Feeling" by Justin Timberlake

2. "This I Believe (The Creed)" by Hillsong Worship

3. Any and every song that Frank Sinatra sings